By Nomalanga Moyo
Confusion continued to reign this week over whether the country was ready to hold elections by the end of July, as directed by the Constitutional Court.
Last week the country’s top court ruled in favour of Harare man Jealousy Mawarire, who had argued that the delay in announcing a date for elections was a violation of his constitutional rights.
In its judgement last Thursday the Constitutional Court agreed and directed President Mugabe to ensure elections are held no later than July 31st. Already Mugabe has said that he will comply: “It is this decision now that we must obey and I don’t want to offend the law,” he told the Herald newspaper on Sunday.
Analysts say both the court ruling and Mugabe’s ready acceptance are hardly surprising, as ZANU PF have always said they want an election by June 29th.
Since Mawarire lodged his court challenge, speculation has been rife that he is being sponsored by a faction of ZANU PF that includes Professor Jonathan Moyo.
But according to MDC-T treasurer Roy Bennett, Mawarire’s organisation, the Centre for Elections and Democracy in Southern Africa, “was last year revealed as a CIO-sponsored organisation, which is part of Operation Spiderweb, a ZANU-PF propaganda initiative.”
Both MDC factions have raised concern that the ruling does not give room for democratic processes to be carried out in line with the new constitution. One such process, the mandatory 30-day voter registration exercise, should have been rolled out Monday but was stalled due to logistical problems, ZEC has said.
Writing on social networking site Facebook, legal expert David Coltart observed:
“With effect from midnight tonight (Monday) the date of the 31st July set for the election, under any minimalistic or narrow interpretation of the electoral process (even ignoring all the other electoral challenges such as producing a voters roll in such a short space of time and the funding of the entire exercise), becomes legally and constitutionally impossible.
“Every day now that the voter registration exercise does not commence leads to greater and greater absurdities and breaches of these fundamental provisions.
“Those promoting this state of affairs are at risk of making themselves the laughing stock of SADC and the world if this absurd situation is allowed to continue,” Coltart said.
But regional body SADC lent their support even before the court ruling, and it remains to be seen whether this position will still stand after the Maputo meeting this weekend.
On his part, Mugabe will be keen to be seen to be abiding by the rule of law particularly ahead of this crucial SADC meeting to assess the country’s readiness for polls.
Some observers have noted that the whole build up to the election — the court ruling, the funding crisis, voter registration fiasco – has all the hallmarks of a well-crafted ZANU PF election plan.
A few months ago Mugabe appealed a court judgement directing him to set dates for by-elections in three constituencies, but now he is going to comply with a judgement that has many logistical and difficult ramifications.
As human rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa has observed in the past, Mugabe and ZANU PF have always engineered the legal and judiciary systems in their favour.
“Unlike a lot of other dictators, Robert Mugabe doesn’t just go out and do what he wants. He first goes to parliament and passes a law … And when you say ‘hey you can’t do that’ he will say ‘that is the law’,” Mtetwa says in a film about the human rights situation in Zimbabwe.
Nixon Nyikadzino, of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, said when it suits him, Mugabe will indeed abide by the law, “because he uses the same courts, mostly staffed with judges appointed by him, to change any decisions he doesn’t like. It is important therefore to read between the lines.
“The same is true of election funding. They will find the money in as far as it is in their interests to do so,” Nyikadzino said in reference to the recent events when $25 million was found overnight for the new voter registration exercise.
On Sunday ZANU PF propagandist Nathaniel Manheru said his party had sourced the funds. SW Radio Africa
