By Our Correspondent
HARARE , May 9,
2008 (thezimbabwetimes.com) - Zimbabwe ’s opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) has now decided it will participate in
the second round of the
presidential poll whose date is still to be
announced by the country’s
electoral commission.
The national council of the MDC met in Harare at
the weekend and decided
that its leader Morgan Tsvangirai would take part in
the anticipated
presidential poll run-off, which became necessary after the
first round of
the election failed to produce a clear winner.
The
meeting which took place in Harare on May 3, was chaired by MDC deputy
president Thokozani Khupe in the absence of Tsvangirai who is currently
based in Botswana .
According to official results of the presidential
poll announced by the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), none of the four
presidential
candidates garnered the required 50 percent plus one majority
vote during
the March 29 election.
ZEC last Friday announced the
official results of the presidential poll
giving Tsvangirai 47.9 percent
against President Mugabe’s 43.2 percent.
Independent candidates Simba Makoni
and Langton Towungana won 8.3 percent
and 0.6 percent
respectively.
MDC chairman for Harare Province Morgan Femai Wednesday
told members of his
provincial executive that the national council had
resolved to participate
in the poll run-off despite the violent terror
campaign unleashed by Zanu-PF
militants against opposition supporters in
rural areas.
The provincial chairman, who is the newly-elected Senator
for Chikomo
Constituency in Harare, made the disclosure at a meeting of the
provincial
leadership called to instruct party structures to start preparing
for the
run-off poll whose date is still unknown.
Sources who
attended the meeting revealed that Femai told a meeting of
provincial and
district executives, newly-elected legislators and
councillors that they
should start mobilizing for the run-off to ensure
Tsvangirai’s
victory.
Femai said: “The truth of it is that Morgan Tsvangirai is going
to
participate in the presidential run-off. We must make sure that Mugabe
loses
again in this run-off.
“Our district and ward structures should
start mobilizing as soon as you go
back home. We must aim to double voter
turnout in all MDC strongholds,
beginning with Harare Province . Those who
have already won as MPs or
councillors should not relax”.
MDC
chairperson for Harare province women’s assembly Rorina Dandajena, who
is
the newly elected Senator for Hwata, also confirmed attending the weekend
national council meeting but declined to give details of the meeting,
referring all questions to party spokesman Nelson Chamisa.
Dandajena
said: “All I can say is that yes I attended the national council
meeting on
Saturday. If you want to know more about that meeting then you
must talk to
Chamisa”.
Chamisa could not be reached for comment Thursday as he was
said to have
left the country for a party meeting in South Africa
.
Sources who attended the weekend national council meeting said the
party had
taken two strategic positions – one official and the other
political.
The official position, according to the sources, was that the
MDC would
participate in the run-off in order to avoid giving Mugabe
political power
on a silver platter. The meeting noted that boycotting the
second round of
the presidential poll would not achieve anything as Mugabe
and Zanu-PF were
likely to press ahead without the MDC, sources
said.
The political position was that the party would publicly reject the
official
results announced by the electoral commission last Friday and
maintain that
Tsvangirai won the poll out-rightly thus discounting the need
for a run-off.
The national council also resolved that the political
position (of
non-participation in the run-off) would be projected as the
official party
position in the media and outside the party structures. The
meeting which
was attended by all elected national executive council members
and
provincial chairpersons mandated provinces to begin mobilizing for the
run-off.
The MDC has officially rejected the results of the March 29
presidential
election and has written to ZEC demanding an explanation on the
discrepancies between the official results and those collated by the
opposition party.
The party has also declared that it will not
participate in the poll run-off
insisting the MDC presidential candidate
polled 50.3 percent of the vote,
thus rendering a second round of the
election unnecessary.
But the weekend resolution and movement within the
party’s structures show
that the MDC is now getting ready for the run-off
poll.
Sources say Tsvangirai who is currently in temporary exile in
Gaborone will
be informed on the resolutions of the Saturday meeting when
the powerful
standing committee of the MDC meets in South Africa this
weekend to adopt
the national council position among other
issues.
Tsvangirai is expected to chair the Johannesburg meeting which
will also be
attended by party secretary-general Tendai Biti who has been
based in South
Africa . MDC sources say Tsvangirai will fly back into the
country in time
to launch a campaign for the run-off as soon as the
electoral commission
announces the date of the run-off election.
The
poll is technically expected before May 23 but the commission, which
appears
reluctant to announce the poll date, says it has the authority to
extend
the dates adding it will publish the dates when all the logistics to
hold
the elections are in place.
VOA
By Peter Clottey
Washington, D.C.
09 May
2008
Non-governmental organizations in Zimbabwe are reportedly
compiling a report
in rural areas where partisans of the ruling ZANU-PF are
allegedly using
violence to ensure victory ahead of a possible election
run-off. The
organizations say they will make available their report to
international
organizations to increase pressure on the ruling party. This
comes after
main opposition Movement For Democratic Change (MDC) refused to
be part of a
possible run-off due to what it described as unwarranted
violence against
partisans of the party.
The MDC accused President
Robert Mugabe’s government of employing violence
to intimidate opposition
supporters to force Zimbabweans in the rural areas
to vote for the
government in the election run-off. Gordon Moyo is the
executive director of
the Bulawayo project, a non-governmental organization.
From Zimbabwe’s
commercial capital, Bulawayo he tells reporter Peter Clottey
that
Zimbabweans in the rural areas are under siege.
“At the moment the civic
society leadership including the church leadership
is going out in the rural
areas to assess the structures of violence, the
structures of manipulation
and coercion that has been set by the government
and the ZANU-PF in order to
intimidate the people in the rural areas. So,
the civic society is busy
coming out with a document to take this document
to feed into the policies
to feed into SADC (Southern African Development
Community) to feed into the
international community so that drastic measures
can be taken against
ZANU-PF,” Moyo pointed out.
He said an army contingent from South Africa
is currently looking into the
unrest in the rural areas.
“At the same
time some army generals from South Africa are visiting the
country also to
assess the situation on the ground. Their report would be a
preliminary
report that we are hearing from them is that they are confirming
that there
are structures of violence in the rural areas, there a re
structures of
manipulation and coercion that have been deployed by ZANU-PF
in the period
preceding the run-off,” he said.
Moyo said the ongoing violence could
potentially undermine the credibility
of any possible election
run-off.
“If the run-off is to take place under the current
circumstances, it would
be very difficult say that kind of election is worth
talking about because
what you are seeing in the rural areas, I’m coming
from the rural areas and
I’m going there tomorrow people are under siege and
by the ZANU-PF
structures. Certainly, this is going to have a negative
impact on democracy
if we are going to have elections under these
circumstances because a lot of
people are already displaced. And if the
elections are going to be ward
based and if you are not in your ward you are
not going to vote and this is
exactly what the ZANU-PF is trying to
achieve,” Moyo noted.
He said the ruling party was taken aback by the
lack of support during the
March 29 elections.
“ZANU-PF was shocked
in the last elections on 29 March because the
opposition got a lot of
support from the rural areas. And for a very long
time ZANU-PF had some
structures constructed around rural areas, political
walls such that civil
society the opposition cannot campaign in these areas.
ZANU-PF was shocked
that MDC got votes where did not campaign and because of
that ZANU-PF is
afraid,” he said.
Washington Post
Editorial
Will no one act to stop
Robert Mugabe's attack on his own people?
Friday, May 9, 2008; Page
A26
AS THE WORLD looks on, Robert Mugabe's campaign of terror against the
people
of Zimbabwe continues unchecked. On Thursday, The Post's Craig
Timberg
reported that gangs from Mr. Mugabe's ruling party beat 11
opposition
activists to death on Monday in the town of Chiweshe, 90 miles
north of the
capital of Harare. The same day, at least five people were
murdered by the
president's thugs in the village of Dakudzwa, according to
reporting by the
Los Angeles Times. Across the country, truckloads of men
are pulling into
rural villages and towns that voted against Mr. Mugabe in
the March 29
elections, rounding up opposition supporters for beatings or
worse and
burning their homes and crops.
The opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, which won both the
presidential and parliamentary
elections, says that at least 32 of its
supporters have been killed by the
government offensive in the past two
weeks. The Zimbabwe Association of
Doctors for Human Rights says about 700
people are known to have been
treated for injuries. The General Agriculture
and Plantation Workers Union
says that as many as 40,000 farmworkers and
their families have been driven
from their homes.
Even observers sympathetic to the Mugabe regime have
confirmed what is going
on. "We have seen it, there are people in hospital
who said they have been
tortured, you have seen pictures, you have seen
pictures of houses that have
been destroyed and so on," said Kingsley
Mamabolo, the leader of an
eight-member South African fact-finding team,
according to the Zimbabwe
Guardian newspaper. Mr. Mamabolo's group was
dispatched by South African
President Thabo Mbeki, who has emerged as the
principal obstacle to
international intervention in Zimbabwe's
crisis.
Mr. Mbeki, who is supposed to be mediating on behalf of the
Southern African
Development Community (SADC), has done nothing to stop the
violence, despite
rising outrage in his own country. Nor has he pressed Mr.
Mugabe to accept
the results of the elections. The 84-year-old president
permitted his
election commission to release the results of the presidential
race only
last Friday, more than a month after the vote. Officially the
incumbent was
awarded 43 percent of the ballots to 48 percent for challenger
Morgan
Tsvangirai, making a second round necessary. The opposition claims
that Mr.
Tsvangirai won with more than 50 percent of the vote. In any case,
Mr.
Mugabe's men are saying that they won't schedule the second round within
the
three-week time frame required by the constitution -- and may delay it
by up
to 12 months.
In the meantime, Mr. Mugabe clearly intends to
terrorize the country into
voting for him. Only intervention by Zimbabwe's
neighbors or the United
Nations is likely to stop him. It is past time for
the SADC to relieve Mr.
Mbeki of his duties and demand that Mr. Mugabe
immediately end the violence.
The U.N. Security Council, which was blocked
by South Africa from formally
considering the matter last month, is now
chaired by Britain; it should
urgently consider action, including a
resolution ordering Mr. Mugabe to
cease repression and allow international
supervision of any second-round
vote.
Mail and Guardian
Jason Moyo
09 May 2008
06:00
A picture is emerging of a Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC)
crippled by what one official described as "a flat purse"
and difficulties
in attracting fresh staff to run the
elections.
Tomasz Salomao, Southern African Development
Community (SADC)
executive secretary, said ZEC officials had assured a
ministerial committee
of the regional body that a date for the presidential
run-off would be
announced once all the logistical requirements were
met.
Salamao, from the SADC's organ on politics, defence and
security, was part of a four-member team. The other members included the
foreign affairs ministers of Angola, Swaziland and
Tanzania.
Senior ZEC officials met on Tuesday to discuss "our
state of
preparedness", deputy chief elections officer Utoile Silaigwana
said. He
gave no details.
However, a government source
said it was something of a miracle
that the commission had pulled off the
first round of voting and that, in
terms of funding, the ZEC was now in an
even worse position.
The ZEC is still busy drawing up a
"provisional budget" for the
election, the source said. But a firm figure is
a moving target -- while
government bureaucrats pore over ZEC's initial
funding forecasts the costs
are soaring daily.
A new
exchange rate regime was announced by the Central Bank
last week,
effectively ending official currency controls. Within hours of
the
announcement, the Zimbabwe dollar dropped from Z$30 000 to the US dollar
to
Z$160-million on a new official interbank market.
At the
close of trade on Wednesday, traders were quoting the US
dollar at
Z$220-million -- and they forecast even sharper falls before the
rate
stabilises.
This means that the ZEC's initial budget for
imported election
materials, such as ink, has been
decimated.
The commission received less than a third of what
it needed to
run the March 29 election, officials disclosed, and there was
no budget
provision for a second round. Inflation is running at 165
000%.
The source said five million new ballot papers would
have to be
printed and that thousands of polling officers were needed. "I
don't think
that will happen within 21 days," he said.
Having rejected offers of foreign support the government will
have to borrow
from local markets or print more money, government officials
conceded.
Spending for the first round was funded
entirely by internal
borrowing, leaving state debt at a staggering
Z$6,5-quadrillion as at April
17.
In the post-election
period dozens of polling officers -- drawn
entirely from the civil service
-- were jailed, accused of deliberately
understating votes for President
Robert Mugabe.
Few are likely to take up the offer this time
round, the
Progressive Teachers' Union warned. This week the union said
schools in many
rural areas had failed to open for the second term, amid
escalating violence
against teachers.
The Catholic
Commission for Justice and Peace urged a delay,
saying Zimbabwe was too
"traumatised" for a new poll. It said polling agents
of opposition parties
had been scattered by the violence and were unlikely
to return for the
run-off.
News flash
The editor of the
Mail & Guardian’s sister newspaper in
Zimbabwe, The Standard, was
arrested this week in Harare because the paper
published an article written
by an MDC leader who criticised government.
The Standard’s
editor, Davison Maruziwa, was taken to the Harare
central police station on
Thursday morning by two police officers from the
Criminal Investigation
Department (CID).
He was charged with contempt of court and
communicating false
statements that prejudice government.
These charges stem from an article written by the MDC’s Arthur
Mutambara and
published by The Standard on April 20.
“Our country is
characterised by extreme illegitimacy where we
have an abrasive caretaker
president and an illegally constituted Cabinet in
cahoots with an imbecilic
and cynical military junta, running the affairs of
our country,” wrote
Mutambara.
“There is clearly criminal collusion between ZEC
and Zanu-PF. To
add insult to injury, this unholy marriage is dutifully
consummated by a
compliant and pliable judiciary typified and exemplified by
Judge Tendai
Uchena’s unreasonable and thoughtless decision not to order ZEC
to release
the Presidential results.”
The Standard is
published on Sundays and has a circulation of 30
000. Iden Wetherell, group
project editor of The Standard and its sister
paper, The Independent, said
that the Zimbabwean government preferred to
“shoot the messenger” rather
than arrest Mutumbara on the basis of his
statement.
“To
arrest an editor will make a fuss for a while but it will
die down. If they
arrested Mutambara it would attract too much
attention.” -- Mandy
Rossouw
New York Times
Editorial
Published:
May 9, 2008
There is little doubt that Morgan Tsvangirai was elected
president of
Zimbabwe in March. There is no doubt that President Robert
Mugabe’s henchmen
have used the weeks since to massage the count and
terrorize Mr. Tsvangirai’s
supporters and anyone who dares to criticize the
government. Now Zimbabweans
are being told there will have to be a
runoff.
Mr. Tsvangirai has not yet said whether he will participate, and
we
understand why he would hesitate. But the unfortunate reality is that
unless
he runs again, Mr. Mugabe will automatically get another presidential
term.
Zimbabwe cannot afford five more years of incompetence and brutality.
On
Thursday, the government arrested two senior trade union leaders and the
editor of one of the country’s few independent newspapers.
The
international community must step in quickly to insist that this next
election is fair and transparent. Credible monitors from Africa and other
regions must be allowed to supervise the voting and the ballot count. And
they must certify the results. Bitter experience has shown that without that
transparency — and pressure — Mr. Mugabe will do whatever is needed to stay
in power.
Mr. Mugabe is also a master at feeding racial resentments
and blaming “the
West” for his own failures. That is why African leaders,
particularly South
Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, must take the
lead.
Mr. Mbeki has refused to accept that responsibility. Thousands of
terrorized
Zimbabweans have been pouring across the South African border,
and he still
refuses to acknowledge that the chaos in Zimbabwe threatens the
stability of
his own country and the region. The only explanation is his
misplaced sense
of loyalty to Mr. Mugabe, who was once a hero for leading
Zimbabwe to
majority-rule. Those days are long past, and Mr. Mbeki cannot
sacrifice an
entire country for one man.
Mr. Mbeki and other African
leaders should immediately send envoys to press
Mr. Mugabe and his generals
into accepting international supervision of the
runoff vote. Mr. Mugabe and
his cronies must be told that they will
instantly become pariahs — with
their foreign bank accounts blocked and
their visa applications denied — if
they make any further effort to rig the
vote.
Mr. Mugabe’s supporters
are feeling no pressure nor any need to hide their
cynical plans. A top
ruling party member recently declared: “We’re giving
the people of Zimbabwe
another opportunity to mend their ways” adding
chillingly, “This is their
last chance.” It reminded us of Bertolt Brecht’s
1950s quip about the East
German Communist regime: “Why doesn’t the
government dismiss the people and
elect another?” After years of enabling
Mr. Mugabe, it is time for South
Africa and all of Zimbabwe’s neighbors to
enable democracy.
Christian Science Monitor
Despite
violence, the opposition should agree to a presidential runoff
election.
from the May 9, 2008 edition
In Zimbabwe, despair
flows with the force of the Victoria Falls on its
northern border. The
African country used to sparkle like the rainbow over
the falls until
strongman Robert Mugabe led it to economic, social, and
political ruin. Now
there's a chance to turn him out – if it isn't lost in a
mist of
despair.
The most recent cause for popular dismay is parliamentary and
national
elections that have turned deadly. After 28 years in power, Mr.
Mugabe was
defeated in the March 29 poll – great joy! – but apparently not
by enough to
avoid a runoff that would feature him again.
It took
five weeks for Zimbabwe's election commission to release "official"
results
for the presidential race. During that time, and since, Mugabe
supporters
have brutally attacked his opponents. Thousands of people have
been injured
– beaten unconscious, their homes burned – and at least 25
killed in
political intimidation.
This on top of a decade of decline in which a
country that was once Africa's
breadbasket now barely survives on food aid.
About a third of its population
has fled the country and its 80 percent
joblessness and hyperinflation.
Mugabe's party, ZANU-PF, is preparing for
a runoff, although a date has yet
to be set. But the main opposition group,
the Movement for Democratic
Change, or MDC, has not said whether it will
take part. It claims that its
leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won outright. But
the official (delayed) tally
put him at 47.9 percent – not the required 50
percent plus 1 to avoid a
runoff. Mugabe got 42.3 percent.
Why in the
world would Mr. Tsvangirai participate in another election when
Mugabe's
thugs are trying so violently to dissuade opponents from voting
again? Why
should he trust its fairness?
Election boycotts are tempting as a
statement of moral defiance and
unwillingness to legitimize a flawed
process. Such was the discussion in
Pakistan last year, but the opposition
parties took part anyway and now they
are in power. Zimbabwe is not
Pakistan, but this point is universal: If you
don't participate, you can't
win.
The MDC should take part in a runoff. True, the violence taints the
outcome,
and Mugabe may well muscle a win.
But the MDC can be buoyed
that the ruling party at least acknowledged defeat
in the first round, so
Mugabe's legitimacy is shot. Also, election officials
followed a new
provision to post results outside polling places, a sign that
they were
willing to accept some accountability.
More important, most Zimbabweans –
a total of 58.2 percent, according to an
independent count – voted against
Mugabe. That majority must not be buried
by an assumption that people are
too discouraged or frightened to stand up
again. Who knows? A Mugabe defeat
could be so overwhelming that it couldn't
be denied.
The
international community – Zimbabwe's neighbors, the African Union, and
the
UN – must now make an all-out effort to insist on impartial election
monitors and other measures to make a runoff as free and fair as
possible.
It spoke with one voice when it demanded that the election
results be
released, which eventually happened. To accept defeat now would
dissuade the
MDC from taking part and rob Zimbabweans of even the
opportunity to finish
the job they began so many weeks ago.
New Zimbabwe
By Alex T. Magaisa
Last updated: 05/09/2008 01:43:50
THE
prospect of a run-off election in Zimbabwe has caused a flurry of
questions
about its technicalities and implications on the immediate future
of the
country.
This is understandable considering that this is the first time
that Zimbabwe
is going through this type of second round contest. There is a
particular
point of concern, however, that appears to have been
insufficiently
considered. It is the matter of the balance of power in
Parliament and its
probable impact on the country’s immediate
future.
It can be summed up in one question: To what extent can it be
said as a
matter of finality, that the MDC has full control of Parliament?
In other
words, has the issue of control of Parliament been settled by the
Parliamentary elections so that it can be said with certainty that the MDC
will be in effective control of Parliament?
The answer to this
question may seem obvious given what has been widely
reported in the media.
But a deeper look reveals that it is not so
straightforward, particularly
when one considers the legal institution of
Parliament as a whole. There is,
in fact, the lurking risk that the elected
majority can be reversed
depending on the outcome of the Presidential
election.
Nature of
Parliament
Section 33 of the Constitution provides that institution of
Parliament
consists of two Houses, that is, the Senate and the House of
Assembly. It
appears however, that when media reference is made to
‘Parliament’ this has
been narrowed to mean the ‘House of Assembly’. This
overlooks the Senate,
which legally, is also part of the overall institution
of Parliament. What
is often referred to as Parliament should really be
simply called the House
of Assembly’.
The combined MDCs do hold the
majority in the House of Assembly all of which
seats are won through an
election. If Professor Jonathan Moyo’s seat is
added to that bloc, the
erstwhile opposition now has 111 seats compared to
Zanu PF’s 97 seats,
making Zanu PF the new opposition in the House of
Assembly.
In the
Senate, the combined MDCs hold 30 seats which is an equal number to
Zanu
PF’s 30 seats. So in effect, of the 270 elected seats in Parliament
(House
of Assembly and Senate), the combined MDC holds a majority over Zanu
PF. In
that regard, it holds claim to the moral capital of representing the
will of
the people.
It would be great if it was that simple, but, unfortunately,
that is an
incomplete picture. The finality of who controls Parliament as a
whole is
ultimately dependent on the result of the Presidential election and
here is
why.
The ‘33 Factor’
It is because of what, for
convenience, we will call the ‘33 Factor’. The
warped laws effectively give
the person elected as President the power to
appoint up to 33 Senators.
Although the direct power of appointment relates
to only 5 Senators, the
reality is that there is effectively an extra 28
appointees. How this is
achieved is quite simple:
In addition to the 60 elected Senators, the
President has the power to
appoint 5 Senators. These five are, naturally,
the President’s men and
women.
Furthermore, the 10 Provincial
Governors have seats in the Senate.
Provincial Governors are appointed by
the President. They are also the
President’s men and women.
The final
18 Senate seats are occupied by Chiefs. They comprise of the
President and
Deputy President of the Council of Chiefs and two chiefs from
each of the
provinces, excluding the metropolitan provinces of Harare and
Bulawayo,
which have no chiefs. Although the chiefs are elected by their
fellow chiefs
to represent their special constituency in the Senate, it is
worth noting
that overall, the laws for the appointment of Chiefs entail
that they are
effectively appointed by the President. It is, therefore, more
than likely,
that these 18 are also the President’s men. Such has been Zanu
PF’s
manipulation of the office of the Chief.
It is clear therefore that the
balance of power in Parliament as a whole
depends on who is elected as
President. If Mugabe wins, it raises the
spectre of Zanu PF overturning
MDC’s elected majority in Parliament. That
would mean having the wishes of
millions of Zimbabweans being practically
overturned by one
person.
Possibilities
If Tsvangirai wins, it would potentially
boost the MDC’s majority, assuming
of course, that he will pocket the Chiefs
as Mugabe has been able to do for
years. But it is worth recalling that the
18 Chiefs have already been
elected and they were appointed by Mugabe. It is
likely that their loyalty
is with Mugabe, already giving Zanu PF an 18-point
majority in the Senate.
If Mugabe were to somehow perform an unlikely
Houdini act and claim the
Presidency in the run-off, the use of the ‘33
Factor’ in the Senate would
assume greater importance even when the MDC
controls the House of Assembly
where laws traditionally originate. Section
51 of the Constitution, which
regulates the mode of exercising legislative
powers makes clear that
Parliamentary power to make laws shall be exercised
by both the House of
Assembly and the Senate.
Of course, Mugabe would
find it hard to govern when the House of Assembly,
where laws originate, is
controlled by the MDC.
However, there is another more immediate reason
why the ‘33 Factor’ matters
greatly at this delicate time. It is because it
offers a great opportunity
for Zanu PF to roll out its succession plan and
perhaps find a way for
Mugabe to extricate himself from the mess on his
terms.
Electoral College and Election of President
Section
28(3)(b) of the Constitution states that in the event of a vacancy
in the
Office of the President, members of the Senate and the House of
Assembly
shall sit as an Electoral College to elect a new President. Prior
to this
provision introduced via the controversial Constitutional Amendment
(No. 18)
of 2007, such a vacancy would have required a national election to
be held
within 90 days.
The new provision is important because the political
party that has a
majority of Parliamentarians who constitute the Electoral
College will
determine the next President. This is where the combined
Parliament becomes
acutely relevant.
Assuming that Tsvangirai
boycotts the run-off and Mugabe is declared duly
appointed without contest
or in the unlikely event that Mugabe somehow
scraps through at the run-off,
that would give him the chance to affect the
balance of power through the
‘33 Factor’. He could then, by way of a staged
concession to mounting
pressure and acknowledgement of his own inability to
reverse the country’s
decline, strategically ‘resign’, thus creating a
vacancy in the Office of
the President.
It would then fall upon Parliament to make the crucial
decision of electing
the President on behalf of Zimbabweans. This would
provide a gateway for the
emergence of a Zanu PF candidate – the anointed
heir.
It is likely that, to douse the flames of protest both internally
and
externally, this new person would extend an olive branch and try to be
pacifist. The international community, but especially the African community,
which is surely getting tired of Zimbabwe, will be looking for an easy way
out. This might be it and the MDC might find itself forced by circumstances
to concede to the status quo.
Conclusion
That spectre is why
it is in its own interests for the MDC to contest the
run-off and retain
political and moral leverage. If it wins, it stands to
gain some of the ‘33
Factor’ and therefore consolidate its elected majority.
But even if it
loses, a Mugabe victory is likely to sound hollow. But
Tsvangirai’s
confirmation of public support will stand him in good stead
should it come
to the matter of negotiations, if any are required. It is
increasingly
looking likely that the conflict in Zimbabwe will need more
than the ballot
to resolve.
At the moment it is a game of what Zimbabweans refer to as
makasa or poker.
In this regard, one is reminded of Kenny Rogers’ old
number, The Gambler. He
says, in part, “You've got to know when to hold
them; Know when to fold
them; Know when to walk away; Know when to run; You
never count your money;
When you're sitting at the table; There'll be time
enough for counting; When
the dealing’s done”.
Alex Magaisa is based
at Kent Law School, UK and can be contacted at
wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
Zimbabwe is at a critical crossroad. To those familiar with the chicken-crossing-the-road stories, my feeling is if the chicken does not cross the road it will surely die. The current level of violence is beyond disgusting and repulsive and heartbreaking and frustrating, all at the same time. The situation cannot continue. We either cross the road into an armed struggle or we cross the road into seeking help from another source, a source that can truly help us. I say our leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, needs to actively, and I mean in a very visible and audible way (lots and lots of press conferences), head overseas and seek help from the countries most sympathetic. He should stay there until the task is done. Camp outside the embassies, White House if need be. A strong appeal to US, Europe, Australia and maybe Britain is our final hope. We so badly need peace-keeping forces or at the very least, international investigators to give 100% to seeking solutions and enforcing them and not heading back home until the goal is met. We seek what the liberation struggle was all about, freedom, a choice, one man one vote. A great heartbreak is the lies and lack of support from our African brothers. Day by bleeding day they let us down. In my view our blood is on their hands . They can speak out and choose not to, they can help and choose not to. I know it's ideal to find an "African solution" but let's top kidding ourselves, open our eyes and see, this is not happening. We have to set racism aside. People are screaming in pain, dying and it is a very heartless thing to spend even a moment worrying about whether our rescuers have the "right" skin colour. I say there is no place for racism in Zimbabwe. Let us seek help from those who do speak out, who will help (hopefully if we persist). The consequences are too ghastly to contemplate. Let us not waste any more precious time. The dark roosters who abuse the chicken, who pretend not to see the chicken and who join hands to peck the chicken to death, need to be overcome. Please Morgan Tsangirai, with all our heart we plead, get help where help can be gotten. Don't wait until tomorrow, the time is now. The chicken can't stand still a moment longer. We're drowning in pain and tears and our hope is YOU.
Sunday Ndlovu
SABC
May 09, 2008,
05:00
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe should not be part of any post
election
settlement in Zimbabwe and he must go. This is the view of Movement
for
Democratic Change (MDC) Secretary-General, Tendai Biti.
Biti was
addressing a packed audience at a seminar organised by the
Institute for
Justice and Reconciliation at the Centre for the Book last
night. Biti says
Mugabe's time is up and he cannot be part of any post
election settlement.
The MDC has criticised the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) and
the international community for their failure to help
change
Zimbabwe.
Biti warned businessmen doing business with the Zanu-PF
government, saying
an MDC government will not honour such transactions. Also
taking part in the
seminar was the member of the Zimbabwean Crisis Committee
Elinor Sisulu.
No date for run-off
Six days since results from an
inconclusive March 29 poll were announced,
there is still no word on when a
second round will take place or whether the
MDC will participate. The
run-off should take place 21 days after the
announcement of the first round
results.
Pressure is mounting on Zimbabwe to admit foreign observers to
oversee a
presidential election run-off amid fresh claims that
pro-government militias
are deliberately instilling terror. The opposition
MDC says 30 supporters
have now been killed and a union chief said 40 000
farm workers and their
dependents have been made homeless, although the
authorities have played
down the levels of violence.
President Mbeki
visits Zimbabwe
President Thabo Mbeki will travel to Zimbabwe today for talks
with the
country's leadership. Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa
says Mbeki
will meet all political leaders in Zimbabwe. However, Mamoepa has
not
specified whether this will include opposition MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The Zimbabwe Times
By Tanonoka Joseph Whande
Friday, May 9, 2008
Dr SIMBA
Makoni is doing it again!
He says he is going to form a political party
in August this year, hardly
four months after the Zimbabwean electorate
handed him a humiliating defeat
of less than 8 percent of the vote in the
still simmering scandalous
presidential election.
Forming another
party is hardly the kind of thing Zimbabwe needs right now.
If anything,
political leaders outside Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF should by now
have
realized the common enemy they have to contend with instead of forming
endless and ineffective parties that will do no less than polarize the
people.
Makoni’s spokesperson, Denford Magora, justified this
inopportune move by
saying, “Provincial coordinators of the former
minister’s movement had
reported that Zimbabweans were impatient for a new
alternative to the MDC
and Zanu-PF that have dominated the political scene
for the past decade.”
This can hardly be accurate.
Yes,
Zimbabweans are impatient with Mugabe and Zanu-PF. But where would
their
impatience with the Movement for Democratic Change emanate from since
the
MDC has never formed a government.
For Makoni and his advisors to say
this at a time when people have finally
gone to the polls and effected a
peaceful plebiscite that handed both Mugabe
and his Members of Parliament
significant defeats is clearly regrettable
because it is just not true as
the March 29 vote tally clearly showed.
After almost a decade of rigged
elections, violence and economic
mismanagement, Zimbabweans finally got it
right, in spite of attempts to rig
the elections.
If anything, people
are happy with what they did, although they were robbed
of outright victory,
with Mugabe, once again, shaving off a few percentage
points from the MDC’s
tally to force a run-off.
This is the time Zimbabweans should stand as
one, take advantage of the
opening and put Zanu-PF to pasture, permanently.
It is not the time to form
splinter groups. This is the time when people
should be coming together for
the final push not to fragment into more
little parties.
“The best way forward for our battered nation is the
establishment of a
Transitional National Commission, National Authority, or
as others have
called it, a government of national unity,” said Makoni in an
opinion piece
published by the on-line Zimbabwe Guardian earlier this week.
“This route,
the only one left open to Zimbabweans who actually have the
interest of the
nation at heart, has been grossly misrepresented and, at
times, deliberately
misunderstood.”
There is no misunderstanding here
at all.
Zimbabwean politicians, and indeed African politicians in
general, have
shown this selfish and power hungry-streak for decades. They
don’t want to
join anyone; they want to be joined. In other words, as long
as they remain
at the helm, unity is a patriotic thing to
achieve.
Before the elections, people in and outside Zimbabwe heaped
praise on Makoni
to such an extent that he had the temerity to turn down
joining forces with
the MDC but, instead, wanted Tsvangirai and the MDC to
join him, even though
he, like now, had no party.
Makoni was not
interested in uniting with the opposition, now he is all for
a common
purpose, in the form of a government of national unity (GNU).
A
government of national unity cannot work when the principals are divided
and
when they do not share a common vision for the future of the nation. But
while a GNU might work, it is the absence of passionate conviction, a clear
philosophy and ideology behind such demands that worries me.
Their
absence is dangerous and destructive because we have seen how our
politicians just want to be in a position of power and principles and
ideology be damned.
People are asked to follow an individual not to
believe in particular hopes,
circumstances and visions.
When he was
under the false impression that he could win, Makoni didn’t want
anything to
do with the MDC. Early this week, after losing dismally, he
proposes such a
union in the same week he promises Zimbabweans a new
political party. Does
Makoni want to be accommodated so he can later walk
away with other parties’
supporters?
The other MDC faction was also under the impression that they
would
humiliate Tsvangirai’s MDC at the polls and wanted Tsvangirai to join
them.
All the leaders of that faction lost their bids to enter
Parliament.
However, unlike Makoni, the small MDC faction managed to win
12
parliamentary seats and I applaud that because those 12 parliamentarians
and
their constituencies must be having a different view of what to do with
Zimbabwe.
But after the poll results were published, they also ran to
Tsvangirai to
offer unity and suggested working together.
In that
somewhat passive Guardian opinion piece in which he pleads for a
government
of national unity, Makoni also talks about “a hung Parliament”
but for a
different reason.
“We have two major parties in Parliament, divided
almost exactly in half,”
he said. “A sliver-thin majority for the MDC, with
a majority of two seats,
is not a basis for the establishment of a
government.”
I am tempted to ask, “What then is the basis of a
government?” if not a
majority, however little?
Granted, Makoni
warns, Parliament might “frustrate the efforts of the
executive in the hope
of forcing a situation of an ungovernable state”.
Why?
Such a
development, he said, might cause the President to rule by decree,
which, he
adds, would be “understandable in the first instance, if the
provisions are
being used to take the country forward”.
Here, once again, we see the old
discredited Zanu-PF mentality that required
parliamentarians to fight for
Mugabe’s wishes in Parliament at the expense
of people’s
wishes.
“Zimbabwe’s politicians, so blinded by the obsession with power,
have simply
closed their ears and consciences to this eventuality, demanding
that any
accommodation should involve giving them power,” said
Makoni.
It is acceptable that Morgan Tsvangirai has paid his dues in
opposition
politics. We have witnessed his abuse and attempted murder at the
hands of
Makoni’s mentor.
And here comes Makoni again to muddy the
waters just like he did during the
March elections.
Is this not what
he meant by “politicians blinded by the obsession with
power” and might he
not be the one demanding that any accommodation should
involve giving him
power?
Makoni will be a good prospect one of these days but he is too
much in a
hurry and is tarnishing his own image.
The people of
Zimbabwe are tired of politics of patronage and Makoni is
still to offer
explanations that set him apart from not only Zanu-PF but
from the MDC as
well.
We may need Makoni tomorrow but his attempt to take advantage of
people’s
misery and usurp a political path hacked by others while he lay in
cohorts
with Zanu-PF is an insult to the masses.
Even now as we
speak, it is not lost on the people that today Makoni has the
Zimbabwean
opposition political stage to himself with the likes of
Tsvangirai and MDC
secretary general, Tendai Biti, being threatened with
arrest should they
return home.
So is the run-off going to be between Mugabe and Makoni
then?
Makoni must get rid of his advisors who were recruited from the
discredited
Zanu-PF. They are misleading him and, like they used to do with
Mugabe, they
are telling Makoni what he wants to hear.
Makoni must be
his own man. His options are not limited for he has the
brains and suave to
see himself through. But, before all that, he should
either go back to
Zanu-PF and apologise or he should stand there and be man
enough to offer
himself as a totally different and unique package.
He can do it and
people will reward him accordingly.
(Tanonoka Joseph Whande is a
Botswana-based Zimbabwean journalist.