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ZIMBABWE: Plans to harmonise elections leading to discord
IRIN News
September 28, 2006

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55758

HARARE, - Zimbabwe's parliamentary opposition party are objecting to plans to delay the scheduled 2008 presidential elections by two years and hold them in concert with the 2010 parliamentary elections.

Spokesman for the government's ruling ZANU-PF party, Nathan Shamuyarira, was quoted recently by the state-run media that discussions were taking place within the party to "harmonise elections", an action which would require parliamentary approval.

The ruling party has the required two-thirds parliamentary majority to amend the constitution, which would likely make the decision a mere formality, and thereby extend President Robert Mugabe's tenure in office to 30 years.

"We want to combine the two, the presidential and parliamentary elections, so that we do not go to elections every two years.

"However, that has not been done in Parliament. A bill should be passed in Parliament, telling us how that should be done. We have been discussing that and we will be putting our ideas to Parliament," Shamuyarira told the state-run Herald newspaper.

However, a few days later, Shamuyarira told IRIN that the ruling party was not planning to extend Mugabe's presidential term of office.

"There has never been a debate on future presidential elections. Journalists have a tendency to misinterpret and misquote on delicate matters," he said.

His denial came after ZANU-PF's secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa, announced "there is nothing like that (the delaying of presidential elections)" in the pipeline.

The possibility of extending Mugabe's presidency, who came to power in 1980 after the demise of Ian Smith's white-minority rule of the then Rhodesia, is seen as providing time to manage a fierce presidential succession battle in the party's ranks.

Shamuyarira told state media, "There are a number of colleagues who are, of course, aspiring to be president. Let me say that the campaign for the succession is definitely on, but no candidate has announced himself or herself yet."

Contenders for the crown are seen as the former finance minister Simba Makoni, whose entry into the race comes on the back of Mugabe's apparent disillusionment with his deputy Joice Mujuru's inability to hold the fragmented party together. It was a situation in part caused by Mugabe, after he appointed Mujuru to the post last year ahead of the then parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Jonathan Moyo, the then information minister, led a bid by some high ranking party technocrats to try and block Mujuru's ascendancy in favour of Mnangagwa. Moyo was subsequently expelled from the party.

Nelson Chamisa, spokesman the Morgan Tsvangirai faction of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which was split by internal squabbling last year, said, "The ruling party is in a quandary of ensuring a smooth succession process to replace Mugabe because of the divisions among themselves.

"They are proposing the postponement of the elections not because they have the country at heart but so that they solve the succession crisis. They are holding the country at ransom."

Welshman Ncube, the secretary-general of the other MDC faction, said the harmonisation of elections could only be achieved with comprehensive constitutional reform.

Reginald Matchaba-Hove, the chairman of the election monitoring NGO, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, said "If Zanu-PF is sincere about harmonising the elections, why don't they bring them to a closer date, like 2008?"

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