News / National
'Zanu-PF wants polls to legitimise its rule'
04 Aug 2017 at 01:45hrs | Views
RESEARCH and Advocacy Unit (RAU), a local political think-tank, says Zanu-PF is interested in holding the 2018 general elections merely to legitimise its rule, since there were no meaningful electoral reforms implemented since its re-election in 2013.
RAU made the comments in its report titled Zimbabwe Since the Elections in July 2013: The View From 2017, which argues the 2018 polls were a ritual in which the opposition has no chance of winning because the electoral field remained heavily tilted in favour of the ruling party.
It argued there was no other reason why Zanu-PF would want elections particularly in their fractured state, where factions were fighting to succeed President Robert Mugabe.
"The only reason that Zanu-PF would take the election route early or otherwise would be to decimate the opposition once and for all and claim a legitimate hold onto power," the body said.
"Unless something changes drastically in the next 12 months, there is little hope for an opposition win in 2018."
The think-tank added that Zimbabwe needed more than elections to solve its political and economic problems, which have been a feature for the past two decades.
"We raise here the suggestion that all constitutional niceties apart, a national crisis requires a national solution, and a political settlement rather than the narrow electoral solution," the body said.
"How this can be achieved has little serious discussion, but there are multiple routes to forcing a national solution and the choice is between a 'hard' or 'soft' landing.
"Hopefully, either of these will involve the citizen more fully than in the past, as we hope that we have shown the citizenry is on the move in both passive and active ways."
RAU also noted that political developments in Zimbabwe do not go by pure political science such as findings by Posner and Young, who theorised that no African "big man" would attempt to continue in power if his lead in opinion polls was less than 20%, was older than 60 years, and led a country that was very dependent on economic assistance.
Zimbabwe is in that category, but Mugabe at 94 still wants to contest, thereby debunking the theory.
RAU made the comments in its report titled Zimbabwe Since the Elections in July 2013: The View From 2017, which argues the 2018 polls were a ritual in which the opposition has no chance of winning because the electoral field remained heavily tilted in favour of the ruling party.
It argued there was no other reason why Zanu-PF would want elections particularly in their fractured state, where factions were fighting to succeed President Robert Mugabe.
"The only reason that Zanu-PF would take the election route early or otherwise would be to decimate the opposition once and for all and claim a legitimate hold onto power," the body said.
"Unless something changes drastically in the next 12 months, there is little hope for an opposition win in 2018."
The think-tank added that Zimbabwe needed more than elections to solve its political and economic problems, which have been a feature for the past two decades.
"We raise here the suggestion that all constitutional niceties apart, a national crisis requires a national solution, and a political settlement rather than the narrow electoral solution," the body said.
"How this can be achieved has little serious discussion, but there are multiple routes to forcing a national solution and the choice is between a 'hard' or 'soft' landing.
"Hopefully, either of these will involve the citizen more fully than in the past, as we hope that we have shown the citizenry is on the move in both passive and active ways."
RAU also noted that political developments in Zimbabwe do not go by pure political science such as findings by Posner and Young, who theorised that no African "big man" would attempt to continue in power if his lead in opinion polls was less than 20%, was older than 60 years, and led a country that was very dependent on economic assistance.
Zimbabwe is in that category, but Mugabe at 94 still wants to contest, thereby debunking the theory.
Source - newsday
