Mugabe begins election date climb down

By Lance Guma

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HARARE – President Robert Mugabe began a humiliating climb down on Tuesday with Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa filing a court application to extend the July 31 election deadline that he had declared unilaterally.

Leaders from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) led by President Jacob Zuma of South Africa are reported to have put pressure on Mugabe for the poll extension during the recent summit held in Mozambique.

Chinamasa who as Justice Minister is responsible for the administration of the Electoral Act confirmed making an urgent application for the extension of the date for the harmonised general election from July 31 2013 to August 14 2013.

Jealousy Mawarire who runs the Centre for Elections and Democracy, an NGO allegedly sponsored by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), successfully sued Mugabe to obtain the order for the July 31 election deadline.

Legal experts say Mawarire approached the courts with ‘dirty hands’ and effectively allowed Mugabe to sue himself. The Zanu PF leader (89) and battling ailing health is eager for a very short election campaign period.

On Tuesday Chinamasa confirmed they were caving in to the SADC demands for a delay in the election saying;

“It is only the development referred to above, initiated by the second and fourth respondents (Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube) precipitating a directive of the extraordinary summit of SADC held in Maputo on June 15 2013.”

Political commentator Sanderson Makombe meanwhile believes;

“Planning to fail, designed to lose sums up Chinamasa’s court application. It’s like he is saying ‘hey judges I don’t want to be doing this, but its SADC, Tsvangirai and Ncube who directed me and I have no choice.’ This will go down as the worst court application in legal history.”

On the other hand National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairperson, Professor Lovemore Madhuku believes “Government will have no legal basis or jurisprudence in approaching the Constitutional Court seeking an extension.”

“The Constitutional Court is likely to dismiss the application before hearing the arguments because accepting it, will effectively make the SADC heads of state a de-facto higher court and in the process creating a precedent where in future litigants will approach not only SADC but the Africa Union and the United Nations and other bodies, a development that will open the floodgates,” he said.

But given that the Constitutional Court is stuffed with Mugabe loyalists, any decision it makes will have to have Mugabe’s blessings. Mugabe wants a quick, chaotic election without any reforms taking root and he is likely to get that.

Already people wanting to register as voters’ in opposition strongholds are being frustrated. Zimbabwe Electoral Commission officials manning the mobile registration centres are working at a snail’s pace in an effort to frustrate them.

All this is happening while Zanu PF supporters are being registered freely and efficiently in Zanu PF strongholds. The Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede is reported to have been assigned the task of delivering a voters roll dominated by Zanu PF supporters, effectively rigging the election before it even begins.

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