HARARE: Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has set out plans for a constitutional referendum in November and elections in March, a timetable that was quickly denounced by the opposition as “unrealistic”.
In a High Court filing seen yesterday, Mugabe set out his most concrete timetable to date for two votes that are key to a bipartisan deal designed to stop Zimbabwe descending further into political violence.
Setting out the popular votes to be held in the next six months, Mugabe listed a “referendum, expected to take place during the first week of November.”
The document also said Mugabe wanted to “hold the harmonized elections in the last week of March 2013,” adding: “A proclamation to this effect will be made at the appropriate time.”
The elections could be a major step towards recasting Zimbabwe’s troubled political scene, choosing a successor to the shaky power-sharing government formed three years ago between Mugabe and his political nemesis, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
But Tsvangirai’s allies at the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) voiced objections to Mugabe’s plan.
MDC spokesman Douglas Mwonzora told AFP “the dates being proposed are clearly not feasible.”
“The date for the election, especially, is unilateral, unrealistic and has no scientific or legal basis.”
Mwonzora added his party was more concerned about conditions under which the vote takes place rather than the date. “For us to meet those dates, ZANU-PF has to change drastically.”
“We want elections to be held in conditions which allow the secrecy of the vote and the security of both the vote and the voter,” said Mwonzora.
There may also be electoral reasons for the MDC to seek a delay in the polls.
After 32 years in power, 88-year-old Mugabe has seen his political star rise in recent months, as the rival MDC has been riven with divisions and tainted by corruption scandals.
A recent poll showed ZANU-PF running neck and neck with the MDC.
Trevor Maisiri, an independent analyst with the International Crisis Group, said Mugabe’s timetable “is quite feasible,” although a raft of reforms will need to be introduced in quick order.
As part of the pact which gave birth to the power-sharing government the parties agreed to a raft of reforms including drafting a new constitution and tinkering security, electoral and media laws.
There are still doubts about whether a new constitution, which would include term limits, will be passed.
And elections without a new constitution could prompt objections from international observers, who argue a fair vote is not possible under current laws.
But there was also deep skepticism over the motives for Mugabe’s announcement, after a series of opaque election plans have come to nothing.
“ZANU-PF has been calling for elections since 2010, and they couldn’t have their way in 2010, they couldn’t have their way in 2011. March 2013 is the nearest feasible time that they can have an election,” said Maisiri.
Mugabe’s court filing also included a request to scrap dates for three Parliamentary by-elections, which he had been under High Court order to announce by Monday.
Zimbabwe’s Mugabe sets timetable for polls
