PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has said elections -- expected some time next year -- will only be held once Zimbabweans have been allowed to vote in a referendum on a new constitution.
In an apparent climbdown, Mugabe said the drafting of a new constitution was one of the major reforms agreed by the ruling coalition partners.
Zanu PF spokesman Joram Gumbo said last month that elections would be held "before June 2011". And, frustrated by the delays caused by political squabbles and lack of funding, Mugabe has publicly stated that the country would hold elections whether or not the exercise was concluded.
Following Mugabe's latest concession, Douglas Mwonzora, the chairman of the parliamentary committee responsible for the constitutional reform exercise, said he expects the referendum on the draft sometime in September next year, casting doubts on the prospects of an early election.
Addressing supporters in Gutu on Wednesday where he was visiting his uncle, Kasirai Masanganise, who is Chief Gutu and brother to his late mother Bona, Mugabe said: “There is going to be a draft constitution which will be put to a referendum; after that we will then have general elections."
He insisted that his party’s views should make up most of the final draft claiming Zanu PF had dominated the outreach programme which was aimed at gathering public contributions.
“We must make sure that when the draft constitution is put together, Zanu PF’s views are dominant because the party dominated the outreach programme,” he said.
The Zanu PF leader said new elections were needed to replace the coalition government which he said was only a temporary measure and again slated his rivals in the coalition government.
"Even in government they have no policy as compared to us in Zanu PF who came up with policies in education, health and even indigenisation of the economy which is now expanding to cover mines and factories," Mugabe said.