Why Tsvangirai actually won election case

By Gift Kugara

ZANU PF’s spin-doctors are struggling to contain the embarrassment arising from the case at the High Court, where they would have wanted judicial endorsement for their leader to unilaterally set dates for elections without consulting fellow principals of the GPA.

One website even tries to sanitise ZANU PF’S humiliating retreat by headlining their story as follows: “Mugabe drops June 29 poll declaration”. Nonsense. Mugabe has not just “dropped” the plan.

He did it not because he wants to or because his advisers suddenly saw sense but because he has been forced to do so by Tsvangirai, whose principal argument is that there must be fundamental reforms in line with not only the GPA but also the new Constitution, which the people of Zimbabwe voted for overwhelmingly at the recent Referendum.

A headline that more accurately reflects the matter would be, “Tsvangirai forces Mugabe to abandon June 29 poll declaration”, because that is exactly what has happened.

ZANU PF never wanted a new Constitution. They were brought kicking and screaming to the negotiating table, by Tsvangirai and the MDC. When the July 18 2012 Draft was agreed by all parties, ZANU PF reneged, putting forward more than 250 proposed amendments.

Against all odds, an agreement was reached in February and the people duly approved a new Constitution at the March Referendum.

ZANU PF and its politicians, deep down in their hearts, knew that politically they had suffered a major political loss because a new Constitution was never part of their agenda. They had no motivation to campaign for the new Constitution. They were divided anyway, with factions accusing each other of “selling out”.

How could you campaign for something that you had stridently resisted? Instead, the campaigning was left to the champions of the new Constitution: Tsvangirai and the MDC. Tsvangirai went around the country, including areas normally no-go areas for him and his members, championing the new Constitution.

Having realised the heavy political loss, ZANU PF’s plan is to make the new Constitution inconsequential, anyway; to say to the MDC and progressive Zimbabweans “you may have got a new Constitution but we will make sure its effect will be limited to the placement of the ink on paper”.

To do this, they want to reduce as much as possible the lead time between the adoption of the new Constitution and the elections. This would mean that the clauses that are supposed to have positive impact on the electoral environment would have no real effect for purposes of the next crucial elections.

This would be significant because the new Constitution contains numerous clauses which when implemented will have serious ramifications for the electoral environment.

For example, repugnant laws in the class of POSA, AIPPA, and provisions of laws such as the notoriously abused section 121 the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, the Criminal Law (Codification) Act and the Electoral Act itself would have to be repealed and/or replaced.

Zimbabweans and political candidates would be in a position to fully exercise their freedoms of movement, assembly, expression and generally their political rights in ways that they have never done before.

In short, the new Constitution would force ZANU PF to do what it has so far refused to do in order to comply with the GPA. If given time, the new Constitution would also promote a more humane, democratic and people-centred political culture.

Of course, ZANU PF does not want any of that to happen.

It is not in their nature to accept positive change; change that truly empowers the people of Zimbabwe. Change that allows Zimbabweans more freedom of choice does not favour them. They would rather the highly uneven political ground that favours them presently remains unchanged.

That is why recently in Rome, Chinamasa was talking of an election before June 29 2013. The plan is, having lost on the text of the Constitution, they want to win on its effect, i.e. that it has no impact at all on the electoral environment.

Tsvangirai and the MDC knew that they would want to use the stalled court case in which 3 MPs are challenging the legality of not holding by-elections to sneak in pronounce dates for the general elections under the pretext of complying with a judicial decision.

This is why Tsvangirai and the MDC intervened, forcing Mugabe to withdraw the part of the application relating to the general elections, which spin-doctors are now saying he “dropped”. No. He did not voluntarily “drop” it.

He was forced by Tsvangirai to comply with the law and to do what is right. The fact is that they were never going to “drop” it voluntarily. Why had they made the application in the first place?

What happened at the High Court, in respect of the general elections, never mind the by-elections, is actually a victory for common and good sense.

ZANU PF wants to rush Zimbabweans into an election knowing very well that fundamental reforms envisaged under the GPA and the recently approved Constitution have not been implemented; knowing very well that voter registration has not been done and the Voters Roll is a shambles.

An election before June 29 would suit that design very well. The fact that this has since been dropped is a serious smack in the face of those trying to rush Zimbabweans into an election knowing well that the electoral ground remains seriously uneven.