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Mugabe plans to scrap dual elections
Mail & Guardian
April 06, 2005

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=200775&area=/zim_elections/zim_news/v

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe plans to scrap holding separate presidential and parliamentary elections, he said in an interview with South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) television on Sunday night.

"I've never believed it was a better system to have a presidential election on its own and a parliamentary election on its own," he said following his victory in that country's parliamentary election on Friday.

The main opposition party has slammed the elections as being fraudulent.

"If the president is not good even after one term, they can vote against [him or her]," he said.

He also plans to introduce more MPs and a two-tier system.

"At the moment, it's 150 [MPs] but I think we can bring it up to about 200 and also have a two-tier system, a Lower House and an Upper House," he said.

Mugabe told the SABC the changes will be along the lines of the draft Constitution rejected in January 2000.

He attributed his Zanu-PF party's victory to its age and revolutionary nature, as well as to the commitment of its members.

"We are a much older, much more revolutionary party. We have definite principles which we follow and that guide us. We have a membership that is permanent and committed to us," Mugabe said.

He said the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is based purely on opposition.

"You can't just be negative," he said.

The MDC is still finding "its own ground, if it will find it at all", he added.

Asked about his plans for national reconciliation, Mugabe encouraged debate between his party and the MDC.

In Parliament, as well as outside, the members of the two parties are free to debate and discuss.

"Should they [the MDC] have any ideas they believe in sincerely ... that will help us to move forward constructively and economically improve the lot of our people, fine, they will be very welcome to bring those ideas to us," he said.

Turning to the country's economic situation, Mugabe said that because of the drought, Zimbabwe will need to import maize once again.

"We have the money to do so," he said.

Asked how he plans to turn his country's sagging economy around, Mugabe said that foreign currency must be made available to the mining sector.

The "corruption and dirt" in the financial sector -- some of it harking back to colonial days -- will have to be looked at "very sternly and very seriously".

He hopes to have inflation back to double digits by the end of 2005.

Asked how he plans to improve his relations with the European Union, and those countries that had imposed embargoes against Zimbabwe, Mugabe told the SABC that he has not offended anyone.

"We are more sinned against than sinning ... We have been put into the dark by Mr Blair [British Prime Minister Tony Blair], for his own reasons. It's a very unfair act, indeed, to us," he said.

To the rest of the world he said that Zimbabwe is what it is.

"We can't change. We can't agree to become puppets either," he added.

Asked by the SABC about his country's media laws, which require journalists to register with the government, Mugabe said they are "good laws".

"I don't think our system would prevent a genuine journalist from becoming registered. Let people register, but don't deny them registration. I don't see any reason why we must deny them, unless, they are proved to be bitter enemies of the party."

Mugabe described Pope John Paul II as a virtuous man whose preachings on peace need to be heeded worldwide.

He was "a very virtuous man, a virtuous leader of the Catholic Church, and we do hope that all that he has preached about will continue to be heeded by communities throughout the world".

Small nations such as Zimbabwe fear "the bullies of this world", and Mugabe expressed the hope that big nations will heed the pope's lessons on peace. -- Sapa

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