Zimbabwe's unity government negotiators to finalise election roadmap

NEGOTIATORS to the Global Political Agreement meet in Harare today to finalise the election roadmap.

Zanu-PF negotiator Patrick Chinamasa confirmed the development in an interview with The Herald yesterday.

"We are meeting tomorrow (today) to finalise the roadmap," he told the state-run daily.

The negotiators are expected to consider a draft on the roadmap before it is taken to the principals for approval.

The draft will be submitted to the South African Development Community (Sadc) facilitation team before an extraordinary Sadc Summit set for Namibia on May 20, where events in Madagascar and an update on developments in Zimbabwe would be discussed.

The negotiators last met in Harare a fortnight ago.

They concluded deliberations and produced a report on the review of the implementation of the GPA provisions, which they all signed.

When they last met,  Chinamasa said: "We more or less concluded deliberations on the election roadmap but we have not produced a report to reflect on the discussions."

He indicated that discussions on the issue would be concluded today.

The election roadmap is all about identifying activities that should be undertaken before elections are held this year.

The review of the GPA provisions deals with such issues as the political environment, in particular allegations of politically motivated violence.