One website even tries to sanitise Zanu (PF)’s humiliating retreat by headlining their story as follows: “Mugabe drops June 29 poll declaration”. Nonsense. Mugabe has not just “dropped” the plan, he has been forced to do so by Tsvangirai. A headline that more accurately reflects the matter would be, “Tsvangirai forces Mugabe to abandon June 29 poll declaration”.
Zanu (PF) never wanted a new Constitution; Tsvangirai and the MDC brought them kicking and screaming to the negotiating table. When the July 18, 2012 draft was agreed by all parties, Zanu (PF) reneged, putting forward more than 250 proposed amendments.
Against all odds, an agreement was reached in February and the people duly approved a new Constitution at the March Referendum.
Zanu (PF) and its politicians knew that politically they had suffered a major loss because a new Constitution was never part of their agenda. They had no motivation to campaign for the new Constitution. They were divided anyway, with factions accusing each other of “selling out”. How could you campaign for something that you had stridently resisted?
Having realised the heavy political loss, Zanu (PF)’s plan is to make the new Constitution inconsequential. To do this, they want to reduce the time between the adoption of the new Constitution and the elections. This would mean that the clauses that are supposed to have a positive impact on the electoral environment would have no real effect in the next crucial elections.
For example, repugnant laws in the class of POSA, AIPPA, and provisions of laws such as the notoriously abused section 121 the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, the Criminal Law (Codification) Act and the Electoral Act itself would have to be repealed and/or replaced. Zimbabweans and political candidates would be in a position to fully exercise their freedom of movement, assembly, expression and generally their political rights in ways that they have never done before.
In short, the new Constitution would force Zanu (PF) to do what it has so far refused to do in order to comply with the GPA.
Recently in Rome, Chinamasa was talking of an election before June 29, 2013. The plan is, having lost on the text of the Constitution, they want to win on its effect, ie that it has no impact at all on the electoral environment.
Tsvangirai and the MDC knew that they would want to use the stalled court case in which three MPs are challenging the legality of not holding by-elections to sneak in dates for the general elections under the pretext of complying with a judicial decision. This is why Tsvangirai and the MDC intervened, forcing Mugabe to withdraw the part of the application relating to the general elections, which spin-doctors are now saying he “dropped”. What happened at the High Court, in respect of the general elections, is a victory for common sense. Zanu (PF) wants to rush Zimbabweans into an election knowing very well that fundamental reforms have not been implemented. – Gift Kugara, by e-mail
Post published in: Letters to the Editor