|
Back to Index
Weekly Media Review 2011-16
The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Monday April 18th - Sunday April 24th 2011
May 01, 2011
Download
this document
- Acrobat
PDF version (857KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader
on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking
here
Election
roadmap makes news - but not the potholes
Reports that
Zimbabwe's coalition parties had reached some agreement on an election
roadmap in line with the SADC Troika's recommendations made headlines
in all the media during the Easter holidays.
The news added
some freshness to a week dominated by reports of factional fighting
in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party ahead of its national
congress in Bulawayo this weekend.
While the media
quoted negotiators from the three parties confirming that they had
completed drafting the roadmap, which would be submitted to the
coalition principals and the South African facilitation team in
early May, they also revealed deep-seated differences among the
negotiators over the nature and scope of the proposed electoral
reforms (The Herald, ZimOnline and NewsDay, 22 and 26/4).
The official
media basically reported the matter from a ZANU PF perspective.
ZBC (21/4, 8pm) and The Herald (22/4) quoted ZANU PF negotiator
Patrick Chinamasa presenting the lifting of Western sanctions, completion
of constitutional reforms and amendments to electoral laws as the
only issues that needed to be addressed before elections could be
held.
No effort was
made to balance this position with that of the two MDC formations,
especially as these media passively quoted Chinamasa dismissing
some of the MDC's concerns. This included their disquiet over the
existence of state sponsored violence and the active involvement
of state security agents in ZANU PF party structures, and the need
for the deployment of SADC election monitors six months before and
after the polls to assess the pre- and post-electoral environment
(ZBC 21/4, 8pm and The Herald, 22/4).
Neither did
the official media view ZANU PF's acquiescence with the SADC demands
for an electoral roadmap as representing a major climb-down by the
party as it is on record dismissing its relevance, insisting the
Global Political
Agreement was an electoral roadmap in itself (The Herald and
Sunday Mail, 24/2, 23/3 and 2, 3, 6 &10/4).
The private
media picked this up. The Standard (24/4), for example, argued that
the roadmap, crafted after "several months of stubborn resistance
by President Mugabe and hardliners in his party", was a sign
that regional pressure was finally "beginning to bear fruit".
The private
media also discussed issues raised by the two MDC formations in
detail. These included their demands to reconstitute the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission, to put an end to the partisan interference
of Zimbabwe's security forces in the country's politics, and the
need to amend the Public
Order and Security Act (POSA) so that it was not susceptible
to abuse (ZimOnline and NewsDay, 22 & 26/4).
The private
media also quoted all the coalition parties and political commentators
expressing their views on the electoral roadmap and arguing that
issues that were raised in the roadmap, especially the removal of
sanctions, made it virtually impossible for Zimbabwe to hold elections
this year as demanded by ZANU PF (Radio
VoP and The Standard, 24/4). The official media insisted it
was possible to hold the polls but provided little evidence to support
this unlikely scenario.
Download
full document
Visit the MMPZ
fact
sheet
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
