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MDC turns on the heat
Njabulo Ncube, The Financial Gazette
September 16, 2004

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/fingaz/2004/September/September16/6510.shtml

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which considers government-mooted electoral law reforms as nothing but a camouflage, has reportedly embarked on an intensive lobbying of regional leaders to ratchet-up pressure on President Robert Mugabe to expedite political reforms in the country.

It emerged this week that the opposition party, which has since suspended participation in any future elections until government adopts regional guidelines and principles on free and fair elections, will soon embark on a regional sojourn to explain its reasons for boycotting elections to Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders.

Impeccable party insiders said the MDC, which has flatly refused to be taken in by the proposed electoral reforms, describing them as piecemeal, would soon be dispatching delegations to all the SADC members to debunk ruling ZANU PF "posturing" that the government was genuinely reforming the country's electoral laws.

The MDC, which is led by former trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai, claims that the electoral reforms so far suggested by government are nothing more than a window-dressing exercise to deceive the regional leaders.

The sources said the MDC, which has maintained that Zimbabweans have not been allowed to freely organise on the basis of their political convictions, would then use the opportunity to stir up feelings over the issue hoping that pressure would inexorably rise on the government, which stands accused of digging in its heels on political reform.

They said the MDC, which has kept the nation guessing about its participation in the crucial parliamentary polls slated for March next year, believes that the SADC leaders could prevail over President Mugabe, whose hatred for alleged European and western interference is well documented.

There is no love lost between the Zimbabwean government and the United Kingdom and its western allies. Since allegations of a violence tainted election campaign in the 2000 parliamentary poll and the presidential election of 2002, the West's instinct had been to work against the government of President Mugabe, which they accuse of now having a democratic deficit. The government however maintains that it is the West's political yardstick and not its stance which has changed.

"This is why the MDC is intensifying its campaign in SADC, and not the UK or the United States of America to explain its reasons for threatening to stay away from the 2005 plebiscite, which should be held in line with guidelines and principles governing democratic elections adopted by SADC member states in Mauritius last month," said a party insider.

The tour in and around SADC comes amid revelations that Pretoria has expressed its disappointment at the latest turn of events in Zimbabwe's political sphere when the regional grouping had agreed in Mauritius for the full participation of opposition parties in elections.

Observers in South Africa said President Thabo Mbeki had hoped Harare would be reined in by the enforcement of the SADC guidelines and principles on elections.

Mbeki has acted as broker in the delicate five-year political impasse in Harare, pitting President Mugabe's ZANU PF and the MDC, but his widely-criticised "quiet diplomacy" has come to naught.

Paul Themba Nyathi, the MDC spokesman, confirmed his party's envisaged SADC mission. He said: "We want to make the regional leaders understand our stance and the real situation on the ground so that the leaders are not hoodwinked by the Mugabe regime. ZANU PF wants regional leaders to believe that Mugabe is reforming, which is entirely not true."

The MDC's decision to boycott all future elections in the country unless the government implemented the norms and standards agreed at Mauritius has drawn mixed reactions from within and outside Zimbabwe's borders.

The opposition is adamant that there would never be any free and fair elections in Zimbabwe with repressive legislation such as the Public Order and Security Act and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act still in the statute books. The SADC Protocol, among other requirements, calls for equal access to the public media and freedom for all political parties to campaign freely.

The government has gazetted the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Bill and plans to push it through Parliament next month without consultation with the MDC.

Analysts said bulldozing the electoral reforms without consulting other participants, in this case the main opposition MDC, violated the spirit of the SADC principles and guidelines on staging of democratic elections.

"The party leadership has fully briefed diplomats. What is left and is being finalised is to tour the SADC region and inform the leaders and civic groups there about these perceived reforms meant to mislead regional leaders into believing that the Mugabe regime is reforming," added the MDC insider.

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