Tsvangirai’s speech follows recent statements by Zanu (PF)’s Patrick Chinamasa that MDC should forget about security sector reforms.
Security sector reform remains one of the major sticking points along the election roadmap drafted by SADC and initially agreed upon by parties to the Global Political Agreement signed in 2008 that paved the way for the formation of a coalition government in early 2009.
“The major stumbling block to full implementation of agreed reforms remains a palpable deficit of political will to honour the GPA by some of our partners in the GNU,” said Tsvangirai.
He said without full implementation of the reforms, Zimbabwe would be headed for yet another disputed election outcome.
“The security sector must be professional, impartial and non-partisan. They must desist from overtly making partisan political statements and abusing state resources to further the narrow partisan interests.
Security forces are a national asset belonging to the people of Zimbabwe for peace and tranquillity and not the opposite,” said Tsvangirai.
Among the conditions MDC-T wants to be met before going to the polls are guaranteed security of the vote and voter as well as security of the outcome of the vote, in addition to undertaking of a ward-based nation-wide voter education, registration and inspection.
MDC also wants the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission secretariat to conduct itself in an impartial, credible and legitimate given the 2008 electoral experience.
Media reforms should be implemented to make public funded media that include the ZBC to cover events by all political players in an impartial and objective manner. The public media houses are expected to desist from hate speech, malicious as well as partisan reporting.
MDC wants registration of independent and private radio and television broadcasters before elections to provide Zimbabweans with ‘truly alternative platforms of communications’.
Another precondition the party wants to be met, according to Tsvangirai, is an inclusive invitation and accreditation of election observers six months before the election.
Zanu (PF) intends to exclude particularly western observers as it has done in past polls, accusing them of bias.
Under the control of ZEC, Tsvangirai said, the logistics of the election, the selection and deployment of polling officers and stations must be inclusive.
“We must ensure that the laws governing elections are in line with the Constitution and the expectations of the people. Repressive laws such as POSA and AIPPA have to no role to play in a free and fair election as envisaged by SADC guidelines,” said Tsvangirai who added that he would embark on a regional advocacy tour.
Post published in: News