Fresh election violence looms

The analysts said the 85-year-old Zimbabwean leader was violating the countrys Electoral Act by not calling for by-elections to fill vacant House of Assembly and Senatorial seats, some of which have been unoccupied since the deaths of the lawmakers nine months ago.

Some of the vacancies have existed since October 2008, a month after Mugabe signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA) with Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara who heads a breakaway MDC faction.

The number of vacancies in parliament has risen from seven to 10 following three recent deaths involving two Senators and one member of the House of Assembly.

He is probably waiting until after September to call by-elections in the affected constituencies, by which time the GPA moratorium barring parties in the coalition government from contesting against each other in the event of a vacancy, University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer John Makumbe said.

Article 21 of the GPA requires that Mugabes Zanu (PF) and the two MDC formations do not field candidates against one another in the event that a seating legislator dies or is disqualified from occupying office.

Zanu (PF) will very likely try to use the 2008 approach to take those

seats if and when by-elections are called after the moratorium is

over, cautioned Makumbe.

Concurred legal group Veritas: If by-elections are delayed until

after 15th September, the parties’ agreement not to stand against each

other in by-elections will have expired which means this

unconstitutional delay on the part of the President, apparently

condoned by the parties, could be leading the country into further

election violence.

According to Veritas, Mugabe was in clear violation of the Electoral

Act and of the new “political rights” section in the Constitution,

which gives every citizen the constitutional right to vote in regular

elections.

This violation of the rule of law and the Constitution should be a

matter of concern to JOMIC (Joint Monitoring and Implementation

Committee). It is also extraordinary that there is no mention

whatsoever of this matter by any of the parties, said Veritas.

The JOMIC is a 12-member body comprising four senior members each from

Zanu (PF) and the MDC formations.

It is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the GPA which

forms the basis of Zimbabwes five-month-old coalition government.

There are currently six seats in the House of Assembly left vacant

following deaths of MPs or the appointment of seating members to other

offices while there are four vacancies in the Senate.

The number could rise to 16 if three MDC-T legislators convicted of

public violence and three others expelled from MDC-M are included.

The MDC-T lawmakers are currently contesting their conviction on

trumped-up charges of inciting public violence in the run-up to last

years presidential election run-off.