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For once, let's have free, fair elections
Zimbabwe Standard
January 20, 2008

http://allafrica.com/stories/200801210785.html

By the calculations of most neutral observers, preparations for the harmonised elections are so behind schedule, it is unrealistic - and undemocratic - for them to go ahead in March

If they do, then there are likely to be so many glitches the results may not be a true reflection of the voters' wishes.

Only Zanu PF could benefit from a March election. The party can move swiftly into action once the electoral procedures are switched into motion.

This is because, as the ruling party, it controls most of the levers of the election process. Some of the provisions may have been amended to give them a semblance of independence. But no-one should be under any illusion that Zanu PF could accept vital procedures which denied it an upperhand.

The two formations of the MDC are still griping about entering elections under the old Constitution. SA President Thabo Mbeki's visit last week appears to have hit a dead-end: Zanu Pf is not interested in a new Constutition.

That much-amended document, even with Amendment No.18, is still more Zanu PF-friendly than anything else

For the opposition, a home-grown Constitution is vital for the obvious reason that, like other people with the experience of dealing with Zanu PF, they don't trust the ruling party.

Some critics of the opposition scoff at their threat of a boycott. They insist the divisions in the opposition are so deep-seated they know they would still lose if the elections were postponed to June, however level the playing field may be.

Zanu PF has always preferred to have no competition in an election, a hangover from the days of the one-party system of the 1980s.

For once, we urge the party to think outside the box - the box of self-interest, self-glorification and self-absorption.

Let the leaders think of their country, and not the party, first, for a change. If the party is as popular as they keep claiming it is, then there should be no legitimate reason not to accept a free and fair contest.

We say this even bearing in mind President Mugabe's retort to earlier appeals for a postponement: if anybody is not ready for a March poll, tough luck. This is not consistent with a party genuinely committed to democracy.

Clearly, Zanu PF is aware its political platform for these elections is hardly spectacular.

Inflation is the highest in the world, unemployment is among the highest in the world, life expectancy, at 34, is among the lowest in the world.

The cash crisis has brought misery to many ordinary people. What they must view as the government's uncaring attitude was the reluctance to confront the naked truth: the economy needs massive reform if we are to return to the good old days of a vibrant export-oriented currency much admired even by some developed countries.

The "cry-baby" syndrome, blaming almost everything on alleged Western sanctions, no longer impresses most citizens. They see all around them vivid evidence of official corruption, seen in the ostentatious lifestyles of the ruling elite. They know who to blame.

Most voters would cringe at the prospect of returning to power a party with such a terrible record of failure and corruption. They will be anxious to give someone else a chance to try their policies.

Zanu PF will never lose its status as a liberation movement.

But the party has failed to give the people the good life it promised them in 1980. It should allow the voters to decide in a free and fair election if another party/parties can improve their lives.

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