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This is the first step towards a free election in 2013. President Robert Mugabe is still insisting on general elections by June 29th, when the present Parliament ends, despite the objections of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai , says Africa Confidential . The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader wants a delay until outstanding issues – such as the bias of the security forces and media – are addressed. He is lobbying the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for an extension of Parliament. South Africa is sympathetic but the other Troika members, Tanzania and Zambia , are indifferent, claims the journal. Meanwhile a campaign to register eligible voters has been launched, a key first step to the organisation of elections. The Treasury released US$8m at the end of April to enable mobile voter registration to take place, according to acting Finance Minister Elton Mangoma. AFP (25/4) notes that the electoral roll has been a subject of contention, with Tsvangirai's party alleging it was stuffed with millions of ghost voters who were used by Mugabe to rig elections. Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said the country needs $132m for the elections, but the money is just not available in the state coffers. Biti has complained that voter registration was underfunded and inaccessible to many citizens, adding the roll needed thorough sanitisation. Two thirds of the 6m voters on the roll are dead, claimed Biti, pointing to irregularities with the crucial list. In a related development, Zimbabwe's lower house on May 9th approved the country's new constitution that was overwhelmingly endorsed in a March referendum, paving the way for the elections. The text takes away the president's immunity after leaving office, bolsters the power of the courts, and sets up a peace and reconciliation commission tasked with post‐conflict justice and healing. It limits a president's tenure to two five‐year terms, curtails presidential powers and abolishes the post of prime minister. On May 14th, the Senate also approved the constitution, sending the document to President Mugabe to sign into law. (Africa Confidential 10/5; © AFP 25/4,9,14/5 2013) Tsvangirai's Promises On May 17th, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai unveiled his election pitch to voters, vowing to remake the economy and usher in a period of reform and renewal if he becomes president. Tsvangirai gave a first taste of his party's election platform, which will pledge to win back foreign investors and clip the security services’ wings. “We will open Zimbabwe for business, usher in substantive reforms in various sectors with the sole objective of spurring economic growth,” said Tsvangirai. The long‐time opposition leader staked out policies diametrically opposed to those of his rival, President Mugabe. “Ours is a revolutionary and transformative policy programme that will certainly lay the basis for a new Zimbabwe and a new beginning,” he told the party faithful. His pitch was designed to appeal to the millions of unemployed Zimbabweans and those in rural areas “who are struggling to survive”, he said. Tsvangirai's vision put clear distance between the MDC and Mugabe's ZANU‐PF platform of indigenisation. The 89‐year‐old President has made redistributing wealth and land from white to black Zimbabweans a pillar of his 33 years in office. Critics say the policies forced the Zimbabwean economy to its knees and has served only the President's cronies – who were often recipients of land – more than ordinary Zimbabweans. The MDC also promised repairs to pothole‐riddled roads, that water supplies would be improved in towns and that young people, the elderly and disabled would get better welfare programmes. The MDC also issued a warning that the deep politicisation of the security services had to end. The army and police are today closely controlled by Mugabe's allies, but threatening reform may be a dangerous gambit for the MDC and AFP feels that their role before and after the elections may well prove decisive. Tendai Biti told an MDC conference in Harare on May 18th that the army would be trimmed in the event of an MDC election win, saying: “The army and other security forces … must stick to their barracks and not be found in diamond fields”. Zimbabwean troops have in the past been deployed to diamond fields in the eastern Marange district where rights groups reported widespread violations including torture of illegal diamond miners and dealers. At the same meeting, Tsvangirai pledged a free and just society for all saying Zimbabweans had been lived in fear for too long. “The state has behaved in an aggressive and predatory manner and that must stop. People must not fear their leaders.” (© AFP 17,18/5 2013) Election date? p. 19665B
Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series – Wiley
Published: Jun 1, 2013
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