HARARE - President Jacob Zuma's expanded facilitation team has put President Robert Mugabe in a tight spot, proposing an electoral roadmap congruent to the raft of SADC electoral standards. The expanded mediation team that jetted into Zimbabwe on Wednesday set a challenging threshold to which Mugabe is required to elevate Zimbabwe’s electoral standards.
The team arrived as Mugabe distanced himself from his state media’s scathing attack on Zuma, in a dramatic climb down after firm signals that Pretoria had no intention of approving the disorganised, lawless and often corrupt route carved out by the Zimbabwean ruler.
South Africa International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said: “SADC remains the guarantor for the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement. So theres no lowering of the guard by SADC on playing that role. The status quo (the agreement) remains because thats the mandate we got from the people of Zimbabwe.”
Transparency
The facilitation team trod with caution in tackling Mugabe and his Zanu (PF), but in the end made their point by coming up with an electoral charter that exposes the paucity of transparency in the country’s current electoral process.
This was very much the “high bar” that Mugabe will have difficulty clearing.
SADC leaders have for the past two years struggled to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis but Mugabe has resisted their pressure to either change his leadership style or go. But Mugabe has resisted calls for reform from his peers. Diplomatic sources said SADC leaders would now use the electoral route to ease him out of office and resolve the Zimbabwe crisis once and for all.
The election roadmap to which Mugabe’s party and the two MDC parties in the ruling coalition signed up to – demands free and fair elections, a biometric voters roll, upholding of civil and political liberties, press freedom and access by all parties to state media, and the independence of the judiciary, as well as the impartiality of electoral institutions.
Fraud, rigging
Our source, who cannot be named because of the secrecy surrounding the talks, said the roadmap binds all three parties in the GNU to “take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent perpetration of fraud, rigging, or any other illegal practices” during elections.
Mugabe has to ensure that the Department of Information and Publicity in his office refocuses the public broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings so that the MDC gets equitable coverage on radio and television. That will entail a return to professional standards in news coverage. The public print media will also need to be instructed to start covering the MDC activities without bias.
Hoodlums
Zanu (PF) will need to instruct police not to deny political parties, labour organisations and civil society the right to hold meetings. The MDC says police has banned dozens of rallies so far, an assertion rejected by the police chief Augustine Chihuri. Youth militia and party hoodlums employed to disrupt opposition rallies will have to be reined in. Mugabe needs to instruct senior government officials, including ministers, to leave the judiciary alone instead of making contemptuous attacks on judges who refuse to toe the line.
This has left Mugabe, who had resisted electoral reforms in an effort to ward off inevitable pressure for fundamental changes, in a cleft stick. Zanu (PF) will now have to adhere to the election roadmap which threatens his tenure on power.
Non-negotiable election roadmap
* Free and fair elections
* A biometric voters roll
* Upholding of civil and political liberties
* Press freedom
* Access by all parties to state media
* Independence of the judiciary
* Impartiality of electoral institutions
Post published in: News