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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Zimbabwe's Elections 2013 - Index of Articles
President
Mugabe set to open Parliament
Wonai Masvingise, NewsDay
September 17, 2013
https://www.newsday.co.zw/2013/09/17/president-mugabe-set-open-parliament
President Robert
Mugabe will today officially open the first session of the Eighth
Parliament of Zimbabwe, which analysts have described as the beginning
of a new era following the end of the inclusive
government.
Legislators
from the MDC-T party have said they would boycott the ceremony in
protest against what they allege was a sham election where Mugabe’s
party, Zanu-PF,
stole the vote.
In an interview with
NewsDay yesterday, political analyst Ernest Mudzengi said the significance
of the new parliament was that it was dominated by Zanu-PF.
He said Zanu-PF now had
leeway to adopt new policies that could take the country forward
or not.
“Zanu-PF now have
a chance of coming up with new policies and whether the economy
will improve or not will depend on the policies that they are going
to adopt,” he said.
During the harmonised
elections held on July 31, Mugabe won the presidential election
with 61% of the votes and his Zanu-PF party managed to get 160 seats
out of the 210 National Assembly constituencies translating to more
than two-thirds majority.
University
of Zimbabwe political science lecturer Charity Manyeruke said
Zanu-PF’s majority would make realignment of laws to the new
Constitution
easier because there would be consensus.
“I think
it’s quite significant that tomorrow (today) Parliament
will open with a two-thirds majority (for Zanu-PF). Parliament will
not have problems in synchronising the laws with the new Constitution,”
Manyeruke said.
“There are various
acts that have to go through Parliament so it makes it easier to
synchronise the laws because people will have the same mindset.
However, this is not to say the opposition is not important. They
should continuously be contributing ideas in Parliament so that
we have balance and vibrancy in terms of debate.”
There are dozens of Acts
of Parliament that should be aligned with the new Constitution to
avoid conflicting interpretations of the law.
MDC-T spokesperson Douglas
Mwonzora yesterday maintained that their MPs would boycott the official
opening of Parliament today because they did not recognise Mugabe’s
victory.
“We will not be
attending because we don’t recognise President Mugabe as having
been legitimately elected. This parliament was the product of a
monumental fraud and we won’t bless the event by attending,”
Mwonzora said.
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