PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has told supporters that a new constitution for Zimbabwe which is now with government drafters, with a referendum to follow, will be abandoned as soon as his MDC party wins power.
A parliamentary committee led the process to gather people’s views for the new constitution, but the process was dominated by competing political interests.
Local NGOs said participants at the meetings held countrywide appeared to have been coached by the main political parties on what views to put forward. Clashes between Zanu PF and MDC supporters in Harare halted the process for three weeks.
Addressing supporters over the weekend, Tsvangirai accused President Mugabe’s Zanu PF party of using intimidation, a described the whole process – which has cost US$26 million so far -- as “flawed”.
But both Tsvangirai and his party’s national chairman Lovemore Moyo say they will continue to support the constitution draft through the referendum and parliament.
Tsvangirai, who is in a unity government with President Robert Mugabe and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, said: “Zanu PF showed its true colours during Constitution Parliamentary Committee outreach meetings when it launched Operation Chimumumu and other intimidation tactics making the process flawed and we condemn this.
“This constitution is a transitional one, we will write the people’s constitution when we are in power, but this has always been the MDC’s agenda since 1999 and we are pushing for that.”
Moyo, speaking at another party meeting at Mashate Business Centre in Masvingo, described as “false propaganda” media reports that his party may join non-governmental advocacy groups who have vowed to seek a ‘no’ vote in the referendum planned for early next year.
“The constitution – making process is an MDC agenda, it is a people’s agenda that we are not abandoning despite problems that were encountered during the gathering of the people’s views,” said Moyo, giving no hint that the constitution could be disregarded as soon as his party came to power.