Are elections possible by June 29?

Speech by Hon Nelson Chamisa on Elections in Zimbabwe.

Date: 30 April 2013

Time: 5pm

Media Centre, Harare

Topic: Are Elections possible by June 29?

Allow and permit me to take this opportunity to congratulate the organizers and the leadership of the media center in Zimbabwe for allowing this osmosis of ideas and an exchange of views on the future of our country and the politics of this day in our motherland. 

Firstly, I would like to appreciate the diversity of the panelists here present, Mr Sikhala from MDC 99, Psychology Mazivisa from Zanu PF, our colleagues from Mavambo Khusile (Dawn) and the brother from our sister MDC.

I have always believed that diversity is the fuel that fires up the engine of democracy and good governance. It is precisely for that reason that I accepted to come and deposit my thoughts on the topic before us. Having said that, Let me now turn to the key aspect of the feasibility of elections by 2013.

I will be quick to say an election by June 29 is as impossible and unrealistic as it is to impregnate a man. I say this because of a number of fundamental variables on the ground, ranging from the legal perspectives, reform perspectives, practical/politics perspective and historical perspectives.

I will now dwell on these four key variables.

1. Legal Perspective

From a legal perspective, the constitution will to go through certain legal stages and processes for it to be recognized as the supreme law of this land. These legal processes make it neither realistic nor possible to have a constitution before the 29th of June.

Here is the constitutional trajectory or the constitutional choreography as I imagine.

Legally, the constitution will be tabled for parliamentary debate at the earliest 7th of May and at the earliest, it will be passed by parliament around the 16th of May, and could be gazzeted by end of May, this again is at the earliest.

Thereafter, we are expecting that a new constitution will require a compulsory voter mobile registration outreach program for a minimum of 30 days and that will take us to the 21st of June (8 days before the 29th). The process will now take us to proclamation of elections, a process that require 15 days before the nomination procedure and a further 30 days up to the election date.

Now, this will give you plus or minus 56 days from the proclamation to the election date. The import of this is this that the earliest possible election date is August or Post August. Now it is general knowledge that August will most likely be a dead and frozen month for political activities because of the UNWTO event.

So, I am making it clear here that from a legal and constitutional perspective, it is actually unconstitutional as it is illegal to hold an election on or before the 29th of June.

2. Reform Perspective

The second One is the reform perspective:

Clearly looking at the whole array or catalogue of reforms that are supposed to be instituted within a short space of time, it won’t be possible to achieve this within the space between now and the 29th of June.

There is need to guarantee the security of the vote, Security of the voter and even security after the vote.

And of course, what you may need apart from the security of the vote is a mobile voter registration, coupled with a process of making sure that there is access to the voters roll, registration of all the voters and inspection of the voters roll making it possible for all our people to vote. There are other reforms of electoral laws such section 57 of the electoral act, where people are required to show or display their ballot to the polling officers before casting it.

This is totally unacceptable and is a candidate for jettisoning. These and other laws that hinder or deprive the holding of a free and fair election should be dealt with.

There are issues to do with accreditation, observation and the deployment of polling officers at polling stations. All these need to be inclusively addressed. We have already articulated our position and what ought to be done to ZEC.

The issue of the ZEC secretariat requires urgent redress. We have to interrogate on who is who in this setup so that we have genuinely professional people who are independent and unbiased. Most importantly, we have highlighted that it’s of paramount importance to have international observers 3 months before the elections and 3 months after the elections.

We also need to address the implementation of media reforms particularly as regards to the national broadcaster, ZBC, to make sure that there is no hate speech, malice or partisan reporting.

We need independent private radio stations and television broadcasters before elections to provide Zimbabwe with a genuine alternative platform of communication and articulation of electoral issues.

These are some of the reforms we would want to see being dealt with, making it impossible to achieve this before June 29. From a Reform Perspective, the achievement of the June 29 date is a no option.

3. Practical/Politics perspective

There are political processes within various political parties which require candidate selection for parliamentary elections and other internal variables that parties have to go through.

As the MDC, we have done our part as the party of excellence, all our issues are now in place and we ready for polls. We have a clear view and our presidential candidate is ready to deliver a new Zimbabwe and usher in a new beginning. We have also aligned all our processes and primary elections will be held in due course.

On the other end, our colleagues in Zanu PF are grappling and still having problems to convene meetings to come up with universally accepted candidate selection process and methods. I am not so sure if they even have a candidate for the crucial elections. Again that again speaks loudly the fact that it is not practical to have elections by 29 June.

4. Historical Perspective

The history of our country’s political process has associated the month of June with violence, and the period of June is mostly viewed by Zimbabweans as an Armageddon month and for that fact alone June will not be a good month to have elections.

June is historically a dark month, that leaves us with the dates post June. The country is aware that August is entirely a dead month will be dedicated to the UNWTO. Due to the perspectives I have unpacked, June 29 is simply and plainly an impossibility.

Just to add more, from a GPA perspective, there is an election roadmap that SADC together with the three main political parties need to agree on. The roadmap is yet to be finalized by the political curators of this process.

This is why our president (Morgan Tsvangirai – The people’s president) is on a regional diplomatic move to get SADC leaders to participate and support the processes before elections.

That being said, it is very important that we focus on elections on the basis of constitutionality, practical issues on the ground, consideration of historical perspectives and the reform sector.

If we look at these variables open mindedly, we will easily establish that elections are entirely impossible on or before the 29th of June.

As a way of conclusion, I am aware of the fact that parliament will by the effluction of time and operation of law, seize to operate and subsist on the 29th of June. Be that as it may, that does not mean that government will collapse because other structures of government may still be operational for purposes of concluding the later stages of the electoral process.

If we allow these processes I have mentioned to go through unhindered; we will be giving our country a window of opportunity to realize a grand take off in a new dispensation.

The realization of a free and fair election is our fundamental duty as a people of Zimbabwe. As MDC, one of the key reasons we entered the GNU was to achieve an undisputed, credible, free and fair election in our life time for our country.

Thank you all Good night. God bless you,

Fighting for Real Change,

Nelson Chamisa | MP – Kuwadzana East | Minister of ICT – Zimbabwe | Organising Secretary – MDC