PM says no better time for elections

“There is no better time for elections,” an upbeat Tsvangirai told a group of investors, analysts and journalists at a conference on Zimbabwe in Johannesburg, without naming any possible dates. Before elections can be held, Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government has to draft a new constitution and submit it for vote in a referendum. That process is running months behind schedule.

The two governing parties also have to agree on a roadmap of reforms that would establish the conditions for free and fair elections, Tsvangirai said. These included an end to election violence, the establishment of an independent electoral commission and a commitment that “the outcome is announced not after five weeks but five days.”

During the last elections in March 2008, which Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won, the electoral commission announced the results only after five weeks while Mugabe party thugs and the security forces waged a campaign of retribution against MDC supporters.

Tsvangirai acknowledged that distrust of the security forces, which Mugabe’s party still controls, was a hurdle to holding free and fair elections. In a recent opinion poll, a whopping 40 per cent of Zimbabweans refused to say how they would vote in an election – a proportion that pointed to persistently high levels of fear among voters. “Discussions are taking place to build confidence” in the security forces, Tsvangirai said.

Asked whether Mugabe would allow Western observers to monitor the polls, Tsvangirai was non-committal, saying monitors were “just one aspect of the election.” DPA

. and praises hero Mugabe

JOHANNESBURG – President Robert Mugabe is a hero, a liberator and the founding father oZimbabwe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, arch rival and victim of rights abuses under his regime, said last week. The conciliatory words chosen by the Zimbabwean prime minister came as he challenged the world to see the president as not only part of his country’s problem, but also part of the solution.

Speaking at last weeks summit conference in Johannesburg, Tsvangirai acknowledged the atrocities of the past decade but insisted Mugabe could rescue his legacy. “I suppose Robert Mugabe has been portrayed as a demon,” he told the Guardian. “He himself made a contribution to that caricature because I cannot defend what he did over the last 10 years in terms of violence, in terms of expropriation and all these other activities.

“But there is also a positive contribution to our country that he has made. Remember that he was the national liberation hero, and so those are positive years. I suppose there is the personality conflict between a hero and a villain, of which you have to make an assessment. History will have to judge him.” Tsvangirai entered a unity government after disputed elections in 2008 which left more than 200 people dead. The Movement for Democratic Change leader claims that Mugabe accepts the power-sharing agreement and the need for free and fair elections, probably next year.

“He’s committed to this transition, once that transition is done, he is committed to ensure we have a peaceful election,” Tsvangirai said. “That will restore his legacy as the founding father of the nation as well as the liberator, rather than the villain he has come to be associated with.” Tsvangirai, who was beaten by Mugabe loyalists in 2007, effectively ruled out any criminal prosecution of the president or his allies after they leave office. He argued that Zimbabwe had gone through two negotiations: the power-sharing deal and a new constitution, which could go to a referendum next year. – The Guardian UK.