'Zimbabwe roadmap success requires sincerity'

Harare - The success of Zimbabwe's election roadmap signed by the three parties in the inclusive government hinges on the availability of resources and sincerity among the partners, political analysts have said.

The six negotiators from Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations signed the electoral agreements last week and set timelines to complete various issues that will lead to a general election to end the uneasy relationship between the three parties.

The MDC formations have been dithering on their obligation to unequivocally call for the lifting of the illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe.

MDC-T in particular is accused of actually calling for the maintenance of the sanctions with analysts pointing out that over the years the party has used economic malaise as a campaign platform.

As such, MDC-T would allegedly want the sanctions maintained so that they can derive political mileage from economic hardships.

Apart from that, the parties are arguing over so-called security sector reforms, amendments to the Public Order and Security Act, staffing of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the presence of international election monitors in Zimbabwe.

The MDC formations want security forces to issue public statements that they will uphold the country's constitution, end acts of violence and an Act of Parliament governing the operations of the Central Intelligence Organization.

Zanu-PF counters that political parties have no business directing uniformed forces to issue political statements, the staffing of the electoral body is the responsibility of the commission, and issues to do with the intelligence services are unrelated to elections and are an unwarranted attack on the institution.

Political analyst Goodwine Mureriwa said: 'People have been making a lot of noise about this issue of the roadmap but if you look at it from another dimension you will realize that these are the issues that have already been agreed to in the Global Political Agreement.

'There is nothing new at all except the timelines that have been but the implementation of some of those depend on goodwill from both parties and availability of resources.

'For example the MDC formations have not been sincere in their calls for the removal of illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe yet to most people this is at the heart of the problems that have been experienced in Zimbabwe,' he said.

Mureriwa said the completion of the new constitution hinged on availability of resources and convergence on procedure from all parties.

'MDC-T controls the Treasury and has been accused by Zanu-PF of deliberately underfunding COPAC so that elections are delayed.

'You can also see that the party has on occasions has tried to scuttle the progress of the process as another delaying tactic.

'These are all efforts to have elections postponed to 2012 or 2013,' he said.

Zanu-PF wants elections as soon as possible while the MDCs want them next year or in 2013.

A lecturer at the Harare Polytechnic Division of Mass Communication Brighton Nkala said the way to resolve the current problems between partners was to have an early election so that one administration gets into power.

'If you look at some of the issues the parties are disagreeing on, they are not likely to converge on those issues like the so-called security sector reforms.

'Zanu-PF is clear that there is not going to be anything like that and the timelines that were released two weeks ago show that the parties were not agreeing on that point.

'This means if they were to be followed the debate will drag on and on so the rational thing to do is to have elections this year and forget about those timelines.'

Nkala said the MDCs had been insincere on the issue of sanctions and kept on raising diversionary issues to prolong the inclusive government's existence.

MDC leader Professor Welshman Ncube has said initially MDC-T wanted the constitution completed in 18 months from the time the inclusive government was formed in 2009, but now wanted it completed in 2012.