POLITICS-ZIMBABWE:Mbeki Attempting to Jumpstart Talks

Tonderai Kwidini

HARARE, Jan 15 (IPS) - The Southern African Development Community (SADC)-brokered talks to end the political stalemate between the ruling ZANU PF party and the opposition Movement Democratic Change (MDC) are hanging by the thread.

The aim of the SADC talks is to ensure that Zimbabwe can hold free and fair elections next month.

Negotiators from the two parties have shuttled more than a dozen times back-and-forth between Harare and Pretoria in a bid to break the impasse.

Tendai Biti, a member of the opposition’s negotiating team, told IPS that the two parties met 20 times for negotiations.

Talks resumed Jan. 13 in Pretoria under the direct supervision South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is now under pressure to conclude the negotiations before elections.

In March 2007, Mbeki was appointed by SADC leaders to lead efforts to end the country’s political and economic crisis by facilitating dialogue between ZANU PF -- the party led by President Robert Mugabe -- and the MDC party led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

"The dialogue is resuming. Our negotiators are in South Africa right now after President Thabo Mbeki stepped in to break the deadlock," said Patrick Chinamasa, minister of justice, legal and parliamentary affairs, in the Zimbabwe state media.

Zimbabwe is facing wide spread food, fuel, electricity, and water shortages. According to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, inflation is pegged at 15,000 percent -- a figure the World Bank says is abnormal for a country not at war. The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Zimbabwe says educational standards have been declining in the country, which was once famous for offering some of the best education on the continent.

The SADC-brokered talks have reached a deadlock over demands by the MDC that a transitional constitution drafted by the two negotiating parties take effect before elections are held.

"Mbeki has called the negotiating teams to try and break the deadlock," Chinamasa said, but, "the MDC is still insisting on a transitional constitution as well as the shifting of the election date."

The ruling party which is represented by two cabinet ministers, Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche -- of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Public Service and Social Welfare respectively -- has rejected the MDC proposal, saying elections will be held in March as called for in the present constitution.

Zimbabwe’s constitution says the current six-year presidential term ends on Mar. 31, 2008 and calls for elections to be held before that date. Zimbabwe is still using an outdated 1979 Lancaster House Constitution.

ZANU PF prefers a situation where elections will be held under the current constitution after which the winning party will lead the process to come up with a new constitution.

This scenario would require elections to be held before the expiry of the current presidential term unless a constitutional amendment to the contrary is passed through the parliament.

The current deadlock has forced Mbeki to put aside his own problems back home and concentrate on seeing through the dialogue he started 10 months ago. Sydney Mfumandi, South Africa’s Minister of Local Government, has led the talks till now.

Tsvangirai accuses the ruling party of preferring to accede to cosmetic reforms of the country’s repressive laws than implement a new transitional constitution. He stresses that ZANU PF is simply paying lip service to the whole negotiating process.

"Mugabe wants a false election," Tsvangirai told IPS, "We are deadlocked on key issues that should enable us to cross the bridge into a new era."

Tsvangirai accuses the ruling party of backtracking on key promises made during South African-brokered talks last year. The SADC brokered talks were structured in a give and take manner in which the MDC acceded to major amendments of the country’s constitution. In return, it was agreed that some repressive laws such as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), and the Broadcasting Act were to be amended including some of the inputs from the opposition.

More importantly, the constitutional amendments that were made give Mugabe power to anoint a successor in the event that he wins an election and chooses not to see through his term of office. In the event that he dies, parliament will have the responsibility to elect an interim president until the next election date.

Tsvangirai says the ruling party is reneging on its initial promises of putting together a new transitional constitution before elections.

"They are shifting goal posts," Tsvangirai stressed. "This is unacceptable, they want to force an election in March and still rig the outcome through a flawed process."

The opposition party has indicated that it will call for Kenyan style protests if Mugabe insists on holding a flawed election in March.

But, "Elections can not be postponed," Lovemore Madhuku, a constitutional law expert, told IPS, "it will need a special amendment to the constitution for this to be possible."

The MDC says that the pace at which the transitional constitution was to be implemented should determine the election date. It argues that the transitional constitution will help in setting up a sound electoral management system, codes for good governance, and a human rights regimen between now and the election date. This they say would minimise chances of electoral fraud.

Critical issues the opposition wants addressed before elections include allowing the diaspora to vote, counting of votes and announcement of results at polling stations, and the role of SADC and other international observers in the elections.

The government has indicated it would only allow "friendly" countries or organisations to observe the elections.

Mugabe -- who is currently enjoying his annual holiday in Asia -- insists that the elections will take place in March "without fail."

(END/2008)


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