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ZANU PF warns of elections if MDCs insist on a deadlock
Tererai Karimakwenda, SW Radio Africa
August 30, 2012

http://www.swradioafrica.com/2012/08/30/zanu-pf-warns-of-elections-if-mdcs-insist-on-a-deadlock/

A warning has been issued to the MDC formations by ZANU PF, who insisted on Wednesday that any call of a deadlock over the draft Constitution is a call for immediate general elections, under the current Constitution.

The warning came from ZANU PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo, after facilitators representing South African President Jacob Zuma met with negotiators from all three political parties. The facilitation team had arrived Tuesday in an attempt to revive the stalled Constitutional reform exercise. But with Robert Mugabe in Iran for the Non-Aligned Movement summit, no decisions were being made. Vice President Joice Mujuru is currently the acting president.

Addressing journalists in Harare Wednesday night, Gumbo warned: "Once a deadlock is declared, then elections will be inevitable. But if they are inclined to have a deadlock, so be it, we resort to the Lancaster House Constitution." With the MDC formations rejecting ZANU PF demands for an amended draft charter, and ZANU PF insisting their amendments are "final and non-negotiable", the facilitators advised the MDC formations to write to Mugabe about the deadlock.

Negotiator Elton Mangoma of the MDC-T said: "We told the facilitation team that we are not going to discuss not even one page of that ZANU PF document. We told them we are declaring a deadlock and the SADC facilitator should now be involved," Mangoma explained.

He added: "This is a sign that ZANU PF wants to hold elections without implementing the reforms that we all agreed to. There are a number of GPA things that have not been implemented as well and we are calling on SADC to make sure ZANU PF does what it has agreed to."

Mangoma said the MDC-T have already written to Robert Mugabe and copied in the facilitator, President Zuma, declaring a deadlock. "If ZANU PF believes the people's views have been ignored then they should campaign for a NO vote in the referendum and let Zimbabweans decide," Mangoma stressed.

Responding to Gumbo's threats of an election, Mangoma said the MDC-T would not participate in any election before GPA reforms are implemented. "We will not be party to any election without reforms first. We will not give up and we have enough strength to insist they do what they agreed to," Mangoma said. Madock Chivasa from the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), blamed the current crisis on both the MDC formations and SADC, saying they agreed to participate in a process that was flawed to begin with.

"Article 6 of the GPA sets out the process that is allowing ZANU PF to pull out of the agreement they made with their partners. We as NCA said from the beginning this was flawed because it did not involve all the relevant stakeholders," Chivasa explained.

He said the deadlock now exists because the constitutional reforms were being led by the same politicians who will be governed by the law. This meant they were only interested in making sure their views were represented, ignoring other stakeholders.

According to the state's Herald newspaper, the facilitation team returned to South Africa on Wednesday night. Lindiwe Zulu, spokesperson for the facilitators, confirmed that no agreement had been reached. She revealed no other information, saying she needed to brief President Zuma first.

Some observers have said this deadlock is a test of SADC's resolve to enforce agreements made by Zimbabwe's political parties. As the guarantors of the GPA, SADC should now pressure ZANU PF to abide by their word.

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