Zimbabwe: No Guarantee for Peaceful Polls

Financial Gazette (Harare)

By Njabulo Ncube

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe this week made a passionate plea for a peaceful election next March but fears remain the country is still not ready for a non violent poll in 2013 unless the parties in the power-sharing truce agree on a clear election road-map.

The forthcoming harmonised elections will effectively bring closure to the present acrimonious government of national unity (GNU).

However, the road to the fresh polls is seen littered with political landmines despite this week's conclusion of a second All-Stakeholders' Conference. Sharp constitutional differences remain among the three political parties in the GNU.

President Mugabe told the opening session of the Second All-Stakeholders' Conference on Monday that violence would not be tolerated during next year's elections, urging supporters of ZANU-PF and the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to respect each others' political affiliation.

"There is no need to spill blood over political differences. Let our campaigns be clean," said President Mugabe.

Prime Minister (PM) Morgan Tsvangirai also called for peaceful elections. But critics accuse President Mugabe and PM Tsvangirai of failing to rein in their respective militant party cadres. They cite recent incidents of political violence which flared up in Shangani, Masvingo and Mutoko.

Last week, three MDC-T supporters were arrested for painting political graffiti on ZANU-PF Politburo member, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu's premises in Bulawayo. The tension and intimidation also witnessed during the two-day constitution indaba does not augur well for a peaceful election in March 2013.

Trevor Maisiri, a political analyst who works for the International Crisis Group, said parties signatory to the Global Political Agreement needed to agree on an election road-map to guarantee a peaceful plebiscite.

"Without that we will go into an election under an environment within which temptations and potential for violence and intimidation is high. The heckling among political parties on roadmap issues also increases polarisation and divisions; which will all add to the fire of violence," he said.

Maisiri pointed out that both President Mugabe and PM Tsvangirai have called for peace in so many other circumstances but there had been no corresponding response from their respective supporters.

"What needs to happen is for the President to empower State institutions to implement what he has called for; only then can we see peaceful elections. The President's call is one thing, institutional compliance is another," he added.

But with the three parties agreeing to disagree on the draft constitution, particularly on the emotive security sector reform, critics predict political violence reminiscent of the bloody 2008 polls.

The MDC-T, which says more than 200 of its supporters were killed in cold blood in 2008, has called upon the South African Development Community and the African Union, the guarantors of the GNU, to supervise as well as monitor the forthcoming polls.

The party wants regional and international observers to be dispatched to Zimbabwe at least three months before the elections.

ZANU-PF has ruled out sending invitations to countries that slapped its top officials with targeted sanctions.