News / National
Confident Mugabe eyes an early election
20 Mar 2013 at 04:53hrs | Views
President Mugabe yesterday said no one could extend the life of Parliament as only the tenure of the Executive could be extended.
The President's comments come in the wake of attempts by his coalition government partners to stretch the life of the current Parliament beyond its constitutional term and have harmonised elections later in the year.
Three ex-legislators who were expelled by the MDC approached the courts to compel President Mugabe to call for by-elections, and the court gave the President until March 31 to call for the elections that would be held together with Presidential elections.
Speaking to journalists here after the announcement of the referendum results, President Mugabe said Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa would handle the court order that gave Government until the end of this month to announce the date for the elections.
The draft constitution, he said, would be handled by Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga.
"Once Parliament has passed it and it's time to work the time-frame for elections, Minister Chinamasa will handle it. We will do everything in accordance with the law . . . we are aware that the term of office of Parliament is coming to an end at the end of March.
"There is no one really who can extend the term of office of Parliament. We may extend the term of office of the Executive . . . to work in an acting capacity. We can never, never do anything without someone in Government but we can do without someone in Parliament. We are aware of that," said the President.
The President thanked the people of Zimbabwe for voting peacefully adding that the draft constitution would now be submitted to Parliament.
"We expected it to be an overwhelming "Yes" vote. I would like to thank our people for voting "Yes" for the draft constitution . . . the people have said "Yes", this is what we said during the outreach programme. That's the type of constitution we want. They have now granted us the authority to proceed further and that means present the draft now to Parliament. Submit it to Parliament for Parliament's own role and that is the law-making role. The role to turn that draft which was a people's political draft really, turn it now into a legal draft.
"To the few who voted "No", I say hard luck but they should now accept what the generality of the people have said that is if they believe in democracy. It's the people who have spoken, it's the people who have acted. Their "Yes" vote is going to be turned into law . . .
"I want to thank all Zimbabweans for having voted peacefully . . . they might have a scuffle here and there but overall the voting was very peaceful. Zimbabweans have listened to the call for peace which was made by the late Vice President Nkomo when he said 'peace begins with me, peace begins with you, peace begins with all of us. All of us have heard his voice, his call . . . his voice continues to ring among us. Let's continue to listen to that voice in the future.
"But we also are happy that our referendum has taken place more or less at the same time we have a new Pope. We who are Catholic have a new Father of Christ . . . We want to say congratulations to him. We hope he will take us all his children on the same basis, basis of equality, basis that we are all in the eyes of God equal," said the President.
He urged Pope Francis 1 to visit Africa saying: "We would want him to visit Africa in the same way Pope John Paul did. We remember that memorable visit that he made and we wish the new Pope a long stay. And we know that as a man of God he will be praying for all of us, praying for the sinful world to repent . . . Congratulations once again for this victory we have scored for Zimbabwe, a successful referendum and I am sure the elections will be equally successful."
The President said there were no vigorous campaigns for the "Yes" vote unlike what would happen during the campaigns for the forthcoming elections. He said the "No" vote belonged to Prof Lovemore Madhuku, Dr Simba Makoni and laughed off suggestions that MDC-99 leader Job Sikhala had also contributed to the "No" vote.
The President left journalists he travelled with to Italy in laughter when he said: "If you have not been going to church, you start going to church. If you have been drunkards, stop drinking. If you have been guilty of fornication, stop it."
If you have been abusing children, abusing girls, not behaving morally, talk the language of the Bible, know the 10 commandments...they are not difficult to follow and basically we must love one another...I am not suggesting that you go out and love each and every girl...
"Work hard and write well. You should be able to get the essence of the story and present it well. Sometimes one gets offended when what one says has not been understood. Someone has interpreted it wrongly. We don't usually rush to correct people. But listen well to what people say...you may want to put a twist like all journalists do for propaganda purposes...no one can fault you for doing that...read more, study more..."
The President's comments come in the wake of attempts by his coalition government partners to stretch the life of the current Parliament beyond its constitutional term and have harmonised elections later in the year.
Three ex-legislators who were expelled by the MDC approached the courts to compel President Mugabe to call for by-elections, and the court gave the President until March 31 to call for the elections that would be held together with Presidential elections.
Speaking to journalists here after the announcement of the referendum results, President Mugabe said Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa would handle the court order that gave Government until the end of this month to announce the date for the elections.
The draft constitution, he said, would be handled by Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga.
"Once Parliament has passed it and it's time to work the time-frame for elections, Minister Chinamasa will handle it. We will do everything in accordance with the law . . . we are aware that the term of office of Parliament is coming to an end at the end of March.
"There is no one really who can extend the term of office of Parliament. We may extend the term of office of the Executive . . . to work in an acting capacity. We can never, never do anything without someone in Government but we can do without someone in Parliament. We are aware of that," said the President.
The President thanked the people of Zimbabwe for voting peacefully adding that the draft constitution would now be submitted to Parliament.
"We expected it to be an overwhelming "Yes" vote. I would like to thank our people for voting "Yes" for the draft constitution . . . the people have said "Yes", this is what we said during the outreach programme. That's the type of constitution we want. They have now granted us the authority to proceed further and that means present the draft now to Parliament. Submit it to Parliament for Parliament's own role and that is the law-making role. The role to turn that draft which was a people's political draft really, turn it now into a legal draft.
"To the few who voted "No", I say hard luck but they should now accept what the generality of the people have said that is if they believe in democracy. It's the people who have spoken, it's the people who have acted. Their "Yes" vote is going to be turned into law . . .
"I want to thank all Zimbabweans for having voted peacefully . . . they might have a scuffle here and there but overall the voting was very peaceful. Zimbabweans have listened to the call for peace which was made by the late Vice President Nkomo when he said 'peace begins with me, peace begins with you, peace begins with all of us. All of us have heard his voice, his call . . . his voice continues to ring among us. Let's continue to listen to that voice in the future.
"But we also are happy that our referendum has taken place more or less at the same time we have a new Pope. We who are Catholic have a new Father of Christ . . . We want to say congratulations to him. We hope he will take us all his children on the same basis, basis of equality, basis that we are all in the eyes of God equal," said the President.
He urged Pope Francis 1 to visit Africa saying: "We would want him to visit Africa in the same way Pope John Paul did. We remember that memorable visit that he made and we wish the new Pope a long stay. And we know that as a man of God he will be praying for all of us, praying for the sinful world to repent . . . Congratulations once again for this victory we have scored for Zimbabwe, a successful referendum and I am sure the elections will be equally successful."
The President said there were no vigorous campaigns for the "Yes" vote unlike what would happen during the campaigns for the forthcoming elections. He said the "No" vote belonged to Prof Lovemore Madhuku, Dr Simba Makoni and laughed off suggestions that MDC-99 leader Job Sikhala had also contributed to the "No" vote.
The President left journalists he travelled with to Italy in laughter when he said: "If you have not been going to church, you start going to church. If you have been drunkards, stop drinking. If you have been guilty of fornication, stop it."
If you have been abusing children, abusing girls, not behaving morally, talk the language of the Bible, know the 10 commandments...they are not difficult to follow and basically we must love one another...I am not suggesting that you go out and love each and every girl...
"Work hard and write well. You should be able to get the essence of the story and present it well. Sometimes one gets offended when what one says has not been understood. Someone has interpreted it wrongly. We don't usually rush to correct people. But listen well to what people say...you may want to put a twist like all journalists do for propaganda purposes...no one can fault you for doing that...read more, study more..."
Source - TH
