Mugabe erases opposition constituencies

Mugabe erases opposition constituencies

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By Staff Reporter

A GOVERNMENT appointed delimitation commission has considered abolishing at least two constituencies held by Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), it emerged last night.

The party's shadow minister for foreign affairs Priscilla Misihairabwi told Zimbabwe's London-based internet radio station Afro-Sounds last night that the delimitation commission wanted to erase her Glen Norah constituency and Gwanda North, currently held by party spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi.

The four-man commission was tasked with re-drawing constituency boundaries, paying attention to shifting population patterns. It is chaired by George Chiweshe, a High Court judge, and includes Job Whabira, a former defence secretary in the Zanu PF government.

When the commission was sworn in by President Robert Mugabe last month, the party's secretary general Professor Welshman Ncube said it could be "relied upon to do the bidding of Zanu PF".

Writing on this website, Ncube said: "This is particularly worrying if one has regard to the fact that the MDC has documentary evidence that the process of re-drawing constituency boundaries, ahead of the March 2005 parliamentary elections, has already been carried out, under the instructions and guidance of officers from the notorious Central Intelligence Organisation.

"By appointing new personnel to the Delimitation Commission, in order to provide it with a veneer of independence, and tasking them to carry out the process of amending constituency boundaries ahead of the parliamentary elections, the government is clearly attempting to legitimize and rubber-stamp the discriminatory boundary changes that it has already carried out unlawfully. This is not in the spirit of the Mauritius agreement."

Meanwhile, Misihairabwi said the MDC was detecting a change of heart from Sadc leaders following MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai's tour of the region after he was cleared of high treason.

"Initially, the Sadc leaders thought it was sour grapes because the MDC had lost an important election," she told Afro Sounds' Ezra Tshisa Sibanda. "But they are now realising that we are a genuine movement trying to raise world attention to a governance crisis which they all now acknowledge.

"As the MDC, we are happy that it's no longer the West talking about the situation in Zimbabwe, but the whole of Africa is now noticing that there is something wrong and they are all urging reform."
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