News / National
Its impossible to hold elections next year - Biti
28 Nov 2011 at 12:27hrs | Views
Finance minister Tendai Biti says it is almost impossible to hold an election next year as demanded by President Mugabe because the political environment is still uneven.
He told business leaders at a post-budget seminar yesterday that even if Zimbabwe sourced enough money to hold early polls, the slow pace of democratic reforms agreed to under a power-sharing deal would make the prospect of a 2012 election far-fetched.
Biti, who deliberately omitted mentioning elections in his 2012 budget statement presented to Parliament on Tuesday, said the issue was more political than budgetary.
"If Tsvangirai and Mugabe want elections by hook or crook they will have them, but we are not fools.
Are they going to be sustainable? Businesspeople have been brutalised. This is an unfortunate country. We need healing as a country," said Biti.
"It's not about resources, whether I have budgeted for them or not. It's about commitments that the principals themselves have agreed on.
We will have to find the resources, but this time we will not raid your FCA accounts," said Biti, in reference to the garnishing of accounts by the Reserve Bank.
The MDC-T secretary-general was reacting to queries why he did not make a specific allocation for polls next year.
He told business leaders at a post-budget seminar yesterday that even if Zimbabwe sourced enough money to hold early polls, the slow pace of democratic reforms agreed to under a power-sharing deal would make the prospect of a 2012 election far-fetched.
Biti, who deliberately omitted mentioning elections in his 2012 budget statement presented to Parliament on Tuesday, said the issue was more political than budgetary.
"If Tsvangirai and Mugabe want elections by hook or crook they will have them, but we are not fools.
Are they going to be sustainable? Businesspeople have been brutalised. This is an unfortunate country. We need healing as a country," said Biti.
"It's not about resources, whether I have budgeted for them or not. It's about commitments that the principals themselves have agreed on.
We will have to find the resources, but this time we will not raid your FCA accounts," said Biti, in reference to the garnishing of accounts by the Reserve Bank.
The MDC-T secretary-general was reacting to queries why he did not make a specific allocation for polls next year.
Source - NewsDay
