Mugabe calls Zimbabwe elections for March 29

Mugabe calls Zimbabwe elections for March 29

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By Lebo Nkatazo

ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe Friday dissolved parliament and set March 29 as the date for presidential and parliamentary elections, ignoring opposition calls for a postponement until a new constitution is in place.

In a proclamation published in an extraordinary government gazette Friday, Mugabe also set the day for the nomination court’s sitting as February 8.

Over the weekend, at rallies held in Harare, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai repeated his calls for the postponement of the polls which Mugabe has previously scoffed at.

In an interview Friday, Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said Mugabe “had ambushed the people".

Chamisa said his party was waiting for the outcome of the ongoing SADC-initiated talks between the opposition and the ruling party to reach consensus on election dates, but as Mugabe had usurped that process, the MDC’s national council would convene in a week’s time to come with a position on the matter.

“Mugabe has jumped the gun," Chamisa said. "He has institutionalised an ambush in a move that is calculated to confuse the people. His actions are a slap in the face of the talks. He has said to hell with dialogue, to hell with collective decision making."

Tsvangirai and his faction of the divided MDC has threatened to boycott the polls if the ruling Zanu PF party refuses to meet their demands to hold elections under a new constitution.

In a statement issued Thursday, a day after Tsvangirai was briefly detained by the police over a proposed march in Harare, the MDC said the opposition leader had told African and European diplomats that Mugabe was not sincere with the talks.

“On the dialogue, President Tsvangirai said the situation on the ground was abundant evidence that Zanu PF was not sincere in the process. He said there had been a deadlock in the SADC-brokered dialogue on the political environment, the transitional constitution and the election date. The onus was now on SADC to conclude the matter in the full knowledge that there had been a deadlock on the three sticking issues,” the statement said.

“President Tsvangirai told the diplomats that the MDC would only participate in a free and fair election. He said the appropriate organs of the party would take the decision but whatever decision the party would take, it was already clear that the next election would be contestable and illegitimate.”

As the MDC still to decide on its participation in the poll, Zanu PF would hold primary elections for House of assembly and the Senate from January 30 to February 4.
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