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ZANU PF pushes to ban council elections
ZimOnline
January 17, 2006

http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=11450

HARARE - Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF party is pushing for new legislation to ban elections for urban councils and instead allow the government to appoint commissions headed by chief executive officers to run cities and towns, authoritative sources told ZimOnline.

The party, which has absolute control of Parliament and can pass any laws it so wishes, has repeatedly lost all elections in major cities to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party since the opposition party was formed six years ago.

But the governing party has regained control in the capital Harare and in the cities of Chitungwiza and Mutare when Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo dismissed the elected councils and appointed pro-ZANU PF commissioners to run the cities.

The sources said Chombo and other hardliners in ZANU PF were now pushing for the amendment of the Urban Councils Act to allow the government and not residents and ratepayers to determine who should run cities.

"The only way for ZANU PF to retain influence and power in major cities at least in the near foreseeable future is when the government is allowed to appoint its own people to run the cities and this is the plan that is under discussion," said a senior government official, who declined to be named.

The official said the proposed plan to ban urban council elections had not yet been formally submitted before President Robert Mugabe's Cabinet, adding that the move would become law once and if the 81-year old President okayed it.

"Cabinet has not yet formally been presented with the proposal for approval but we all know that once Mugabe says yes, then there shall be no resistance," he said.

According to the official, ZANU PF legal affairs secretary and state Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa has however voiced strong reservations about the proposed move to bar residents from choosing town councils.

Chinamasa is said to have advised the ruling party's inner politburo committee, when it appeared the key committee would endorse the plan, that Zimbabwe would be the only country in the world to outlaw local government elections and that such a move would entrench the view that the country was a dictatorship.

"Chinamasa argued that Chombo should look for other ways of strengthening government control on opposition-run councils without necessarily scrapping elections," said another source, who also did not want to be named.

Chinamasa could not be reached for comment on the matter yesterday, while Chombo would neither confirm nor deny whether ZANU PF was considering using its parliamentary majority to push through new legislation to ban urban council elections.

But the Local Government Minister ominously warned that government was planning to take greater control of cities, claiming opposition-led councils were inept.

He said: "We have realised that most of these MDC people running our councils are inept. From now on my ministry will take a bigger role in ensuring that our people do not suffer in towns like they were doing under MDC-led councils."

Under the proposed new regulations that Chombo and other ZANU PF hardliners want in place before year-end, the post of a popularly elected executive mayor will be abolished. Instead town clerks, at present the most senior council employees, will be elevated to chief executive officers and tasked with the day-to-day management of cities.

In the place of elected councillors, the minister of local government would be empowered to appoint commissioners reporting to him directly. The minister will have the power to fire or suspend commissioners and town chief executives for misconduct or incompetence.

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said while the opposition party could not stop ZANU PF from amending the law to ban urban council elections due to its inferior numbers in Parliament, the opposition party would however mobilise residents to resist such a move.

He said: "Mugabe has become afraid of the people's voice. Dictators do not give people rights to vote, they take them away. But because we can no longer use the ballot to have our say, we shall use the streets to reclaim our rights and freedoms." - ZimOnline

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