'Swearing of MPs be done on Tuesday,' Mugabe directive

MEMBERS of Parliament will be sworn in on Tuesday, the Clerk of Parliament, Mr Austin Zvoma, has said.

This comes as Zanu-PF has recommended that Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission chairperson Jacob Mudenda be elected Speaker of Parliament when the Eighth Parliament opens business.

Mr Zvoma said he would convene a media briefing today outlining preparations that would have been made.

"President Mugabe has directed that the swearing in of newly-elected Members of Parliament be at the earliest possible convenience. We plan to do this on Tuesday," Mr Zvoma said at a cocktail party he held for the media.

He said the swearing in would be followed by the swearing in of presiding officers.

Presiding officers are National Assembly Speaker, his/her deputy, Senate President and the deputy.

Mr Zvoma said President Mugabe was still to fix the day of the official opening of the first session of the Eighth Parliament.

Zanu-PF dominates both houses of Parliament after routing MDC-T in the harmonised elections

Zanu-PF clinched 160 seats out of the 210 National Assembly constituencies to gain well over the two thirds majority of 140 seats, and a crushing 76 percent dominance.

After factoring in 60 women's quota seats elected by proportional representation of six for each of the 10 provinces, the final composition of the 270-member National Assembly comes to 197 seats for Zanu-PF, 70 for MDC-T, two for MDC, and one independent, giving Zanu-PF just under 73 percent of the total seats in the National Assembly, but well over the two thirds majority of 180 seats.

In the Upper House, Zanu-PF ended up with 37 Senators, MDC-T with 21 and MDC with two.

President Mugabe also trounced MDC-T in the presidential race garnering 61,09 percent of the votes cast to MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai's 33,94 percent.

MDC leader Professor Welshman Ncube, Zapu leader Dr Dumiso Dabengwa and Mr Kisinoti Mukwazhe of the Zimbabwe Development Party shared the remaining 4,97 percent.

Zanu-PF's dominance was also manifest in local authority elections that saw the party win 1 493 wards against a mere 442 for MDC-T.

If elected, Mudenda would take over from outgoing Speaker Mr Lovemore Moyo who is also the MDC-T national chairman. Mr Moyo lost the Matobo North National Assembly constituency to Never Khanye of Zanu-PF.

Zanu-PF secretary for information and publicity Rugare Gumbo said the party also recommended the retention of Cdes Edna Madzongwe as Senate president and Joram Gumbo as the party's chief whip respectively.

"The Politburo will be recommending obviously the appointment of Speaker in the name of (Cde) Jacob Mudenda and the Senate will have (Cde) Edna Madzongwe as its president.

"We will retain (Cde) Joram Gumbo as chief whip of the National Assembly and Mrs Tambudzani Mohadi as chief whip of the Senate. Generally that is the case.

"These are just floating thoughts which have been put out by the Politburo. There is a need to therefore confirm with them."

The proposed names by Zanu-PF are aptly tipped to land posts proposed for them.

This is largely because Zanu-PF now has the controlling stake in Parliament after clinching 197 seats in the recent harmonised elections.

Zanu-PF lost its control of the August House in 2008 when the party lost majority seats in the House of Assembly to the MDC formations.

The revolutionary party garnered 99 seats in 2008 against 110 constituencies for the combined MDC formations.

Zanu-PF's favourite candidate for the Speaker's post Mudenda is a seasoned lawyer who once served as Zanu-PF Politburo member and provincial chairperson for Matabeleland North province.

Last year he was appointed chairperson for the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission at the same time that Justice Rita Makarau was appointed chairperson for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

Mudenda took over as Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission chairperson from Professor Reg Austin who resigned from the post last year.