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Election Watch Issue 7 - 2012
The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
June 28, 2012

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Copac accused of failing the nation

News of fresh disagreements in Zimbabwe's long overdue constitution making process was the most significant aspect of the media's coverage of the country's preparations for forthcoming national elections.

Both the government and private media reported the parties in Zimbabwe's Constitution Parliamentary Select Committee (Copac) accusing each other of stalling the exercise.

Matters came to a head when ZANU PF reportedly tabled a 29-page document with over 225 demands that would, according to the other parties, subvert the views of the people gathered during the constitutional outreach consultation phase.

The private media reported the document as containing proposals to overhaul nearly all the 18 chapters of the draft constitution, which ironically had been approved by Copac's management committee that includes senior ZANU PF Politburo members (The Financial Gazette and Daily News, 7 & 8/6). The Gazette reported that a perusal of the document shows that the party specifically wants to discard the issues of devolution of power, an independent National Prosecuting Authority, the Constitutional Court and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The party also wants the removal of a clause in the draft barring the military from engaging in the political affairs of the country (which exists in Zimbabwe's present Constitution). It further proposes the removal of a clause that demands the President first seeks parliamentary approval before declaring war. ZANU PF proposes that the President should be allowed unbridled powers to declare war. In addition, the party advocates for unlimited ministerial appointments by the President.

The media reported that ZANU PF's proposals attracted outrage from the two MDC formations and some political commentators, who viewed them as an attempt to delay the conclusion of the new constitution, thus enabling Mugabe to unilaterally call for fresh polls under the current negotiated Lancaster House Constitution (Gazette, Daily News, Radio VoP and New Zimbabwe.com, 7 & 8, 15, 16 & 21/6).

Furthermore, the two MDC formations were reported as promising to block ZANU PF's plans during the management committee's three-day retreat in Nyanga during June, aimed at breaking the gridlock over the final draft
(Zimbabwe Metro, Daily News, Daily News On Sunday, NewsDay, and The Gazette, 15, 18/6).

However, all media reported ZANU PF defending its demands and dismissing some of the accusations as "nonsense" (Daily News and NewsDay, 8, 10 &
18/6).

These included claims that the party's Politburo member Jonathan Moyo had authored the document with the assistance of senior military officers. In one such story, ZANU PF's Copac co-chairman Paul Mangwana was reported saying: "We never demanded that soldiers be allowed to take part in politics, what we are saying is we do not want a politicized constitution that has reference to the military in every chapter . . . " (The Zimbabwean, 14/6).

This report was among the 42 stories the media carried on Copac's squabbles. Of the 42 reports, 18 appeared in the government media and 24 in the private media.

The remaining eight reported other political analysts and some civic organizations blaming all the parties for problems in the constitution-making process.

These commentators and civic groups accused the parties of being selfish; lacking national interest; and politicizing the exercise.

In one such case, ZBC (7/6, 8pm) reported National Constitutional Assembly chairman Lovemore Madhuku expressing doubt over Copac's ability to deliver a new constitution: "There is no constitution that will come from Copac so there is need for government to intervene because precious time has been wasted while millions of dollars have gone under the drain. The whole process should be aborted".

The NCA leader said nowhere in the world was a constitution written by political parties and urged the principals to disband Copac and set up an independent body to write the new supreme law of the land as is the trend worldwide (ZBC, 7/6, 8pm).

In another report, the Daily News (23/6) reported a coalition of civic groups, the National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (Nango), expressing similar sentiments.

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