Mugabe retains control over elections

Mugabe retains control over elections

ZIMBABWEANS vote in parliamentary polls next March

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By Agencies

THE Zimbabwean government has approved a draft bill that will give President Robert Mugabe the power to appoint key members of the commission overseeing parliamentary polls in March, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The state-run Herald newspaper said a draft version of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Bill was adopted this week.

"The President will appoint the chairperson of the commission... and four other commissioners from a list of seven nominees put forward by the parliamentary committee on standing rules and orders," the paper said.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) dismissed the draft bill as an attempt by the government "to pull the wool over the eyes of Zimbabweans and (the) international community".

"It is quite clear that the chairperson of the commission... will be chosen by an interested party, namely the president," said David Coltart, the MDC's secretary for legal affairs.

The Herald said the commission will direct, but not carry out, voter registration, and devise "regulations on the reasonable and equal access by political parties to radio and television broadcasting services" during the election period.

Zimbabwe's state media has been dubbed a mouthpiece for the ruling party by the opposition and accused of discrediting the MDC as a "puppet" of former colonial power Britain.

The opposition party's legal secretary said on Wednesday that confining the opposition's access to state media to the "election period" - which at most lasts five weeks - would severely restrict its media exposure, especially compared to the unlimited coverage given to ZANU-PF.

Mugabe was re-elected in 2002 in presidential polls which were slammed by international rights groups and the MDC as unfair.

The government's adoption of the draft bill comes after the MDC has vowed to boycott future elections - including next year's general elections - if the government fails to implement in full a regional charter for holding a free plebiscite.
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