Mugabe election plan suffers major blow

By Never Kadungure (Political Editor)

Plans by Robert Mugabe to force the country into a pre-mature election suffered a major blow after it was revealed a report sent to mediating South African President Jacob Zuma confirmed it was impossible to have elections next year.

Inter-party negotiators from Zanu PF, MDC-T and the MDC-M have submitted a report to Zuma which is expected to be tabled at a special summit of the SADC troika in Lusaka, Zambia next year.

The report makes it clear the country is not ready for a fresh round of elections and several issues in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) are still to be implemented including a new constitution and substantive electoral reforms.

MDC-T spokesman Nelson Chamisa accused Zanu PF of putting the cart before the horse in its call for elections. “Conditions for a free and fair election are the horse, whereas the elections are the cart, so we should have the conditions being put in place first,” he said.

Zanu PF is deeply divided over whether to rush into another election given their humiliating defeat to the MDC-T in March 2008. Officials admit their structures countrywide have all but collapsed and chances of winning an election are very slim if not nonexistent.

Mugabe’s regime has since roped in the army to help bully the population into supporting Zanu PF. At the last meeting between President Zuma and Zimbabwe’s three political leaders, the MDC-T raised the deployment of the army as a worrying development. Zuma is said to have pledged to look into it.