Opinion / Blogs
Why Zimbabwe election is impossible in 2011
10 Jun 2011 at 09:53hrs | Views
Zanu PF's politburo met on Wednesday and decided to maintain the deliberate lie about the possibility of an election this year.
"We are preparing for elections. Elections are on this year," said Rugare Gumbo at the end of the meeting.
For the benefit of our readers and the public in general, it is important that the record is put straight.
What Zanu PF seems to be saying is that the year 2011 never ends, which is a myth and a wild fallacy. Consider the following realities:
Elections under the old Lancaster House Constitution can only be held when:
• An official announcement of a possibility of an election is followed by a period set aside for voter registration. This period traditionally takes three months.
Since we are in June, for such an election to take place this year and assuming voters begin to register today, it won't be until September that the process is completed.
• After the voter registration exercise, a delimitation commission takes over the figures and begins to carve-out constituencies based on the population densities of each area. The commission normally requires a 60-day window for it to do a proper job. That takes the process right into November.
• When the constituencies are drawn up, a proclamation is then required, announcing a date for the nomination of candidates and that of an election.
• From the day the candidates are officially nominated, the law requires that parties and individuals be afforded another period of not less than 21 days to campaign in their constituencies.
From the above, it is clear that these processes, under today's circumstances, would take Zimbabwe way into 2012.
If we are to have an election under the Mwonzora/Mangwana/Mkhosi Constitution, currently in a nation's pressure cooker, Zimbabwe is now at the thematic committee stage and has yet to fulfill the following processes:
• The material must be handed over to a team of experts to draft a new Constitution. This may require a period of not less than 90 days if the experts are to avoid pushing the data into a "microwave" for a quick meal. Again, that could take us way into September if the thematic committees surprisingly finish their work today.
• The drafters would have to hand over their work to COPAC which shall then compile a separate report to accompany this document. The draft and the accompanying report have to be debated in Parliament before it is gazetted. That process could easily take-up another month, if not more.
• After the draft is gazetted, a date for a referendum has to be set. By then we shall be way into the dying days of 2011.
• After the referendum, the draft Constitution – if approved by the people – has to be gazetted again, in preparation for an introduction into Parliament, once more. After further debate, a new democratic Constitution then becomes a reality.
• The new supreme law would open the way for fresh voter registration; delimitation of constituencies; proclamations and setting up of dates of nomination court sittings; campaign periods; and finally an election.
Surely, all this can't and won't happen in 2011.
Zanu PF, through Patrick Chinamasa, is aware of all this. What the party simply wants is to create unnecessary alarm, anxiety and confusion. That party's reason for pushing the nation into a state of fretfulness beggars an explanation.
Fortunately, the majority in Zimbabwe and in SADC have since ignored their incessantly dishonest calls for an election that can never, legally and procedurally, take place in 2011 through the use of whichever Constitutional instrument available today.
To complicate the situation further, no single political party has the authority to unilaterally declare election dates outside of national and SADC consensus, says MDC spokesperson Hon. Douglas Mwonzora.
Mugabe and Zanu PF share executive authority with President Tsvangirai and the MDC in the coalition government.
They must therefore, agree on a suitable election date after all what has to be done, has been done.
Meanwhile, Robert Mugabe has bent over backwards over his unexplained outcry for a sudden election, accepting that they could be postponed to 2012.
This is a major climb down believed to be a result of the reality on the ground and the pressure from SADC.
'If we fail, then elections should be held during the first few months next year,' Mugabe said. Mugabe and some in Zanu-PF have preferred a snap election in which rogue elements of the security Why an election is impossible in " forces become useful campaign tools through state – sponsored violence and intimidation.
Click here for The Real Change Times Issue 071 of 2011
"We are preparing for elections. Elections are on this year," said Rugare Gumbo at the end of the meeting.
For the benefit of our readers and the public in general, it is important that the record is put straight.
What Zanu PF seems to be saying is that the year 2011 never ends, which is a myth and a wild fallacy. Consider the following realities:
Elections under the old Lancaster House Constitution can only be held when:
• An official announcement of a possibility of an election is followed by a period set aside for voter registration. This period traditionally takes three months.
Since we are in June, for such an election to take place this year and assuming voters begin to register today, it won't be until September that the process is completed.
• After the voter registration exercise, a delimitation commission takes over the figures and begins to carve-out constituencies based on the population densities of each area. The commission normally requires a 60-day window for it to do a proper job. That takes the process right into November.
• When the constituencies are drawn up, a proclamation is then required, announcing a date for the nomination of candidates and that of an election.
• From the day the candidates are officially nominated, the law requires that parties and individuals be afforded another period of not less than 21 days to campaign in their constituencies.
From the above, it is clear that these processes, under today's circumstances, would take Zimbabwe way into 2012.
If we are to have an election under the Mwonzora/Mangwana/Mkhosi Constitution, currently in a nation's pressure cooker, Zimbabwe is now at the thematic committee stage and has yet to fulfill the following processes:
• The material must be handed over to a team of experts to draft a new Constitution. This may require a period of not less than 90 days if the experts are to avoid pushing the data into a "microwave" for a quick meal. Again, that could take us way into September if the thematic committees surprisingly finish their work today.
• After the draft is gazetted, a date for a referendum has to be set. By then we shall be way into the dying days of 2011.
• After the referendum, the draft Constitution – if approved by the people – has to be gazetted again, in preparation for an introduction into Parliament, once more. After further debate, a new democratic Constitution then becomes a reality.
• The new supreme law would open the way for fresh voter registration; delimitation of constituencies; proclamations and setting up of dates of nomination court sittings; campaign periods; and finally an election.
Surely, all this can't and won't happen in 2011.
Zanu PF, through Patrick Chinamasa, is aware of all this. What the party simply wants is to create unnecessary alarm, anxiety and confusion. That party's reason for pushing the nation into a state of fretfulness beggars an explanation.
Fortunately, the majority in Zimbabwe and in SADC have since ignored their incessantly dishonest calls for an election that can never, legally and procedurally, take place in 2011 through the use of whichever Constitutional instrument available today.
To complicate the situation further, no single political party has the authority to unilaterally declare election dates outside of national and SADC consensus, says MDC spokesperson Hon. Douglas Mwonzora.
Mugabe and Zanu PF share executive authority with President Tsvangirai and the MDC in the coalition government.
They must therefore, agree on a suitable election date after all what has to be done, has been done.
Meanwhile, Robert Mugabe has bent over backwards over his unexplained outcry for a sudden election, accepting that they could be postponed to 2012.
This is a major climb down believed to be a result of the reality on the ground and the pressure from SADC.
'If we fail, then elections should be held during the first few months next year,' Mugabe said. Mugabe and some in Zanu-PF have preferred a snap election in which rogue elements of the security Why an election is impossible in " forces become useful campaign tools through state – sponsored violence and intimidation.
Click here for The Real Change Times Issue 071 of 2011
Source - The Real Change Times
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