Court clears Mugabe 2013 election plan

By KITSEPILE NYATHI, NATION CORRESPONDENT, HARARE

IN SUMMARY

**Until the 2008 parliamentary elections, Zimbabwe was effectively a one-party state.

**For years it was a major tobacco producer and a potential bread basket for surrounding countries.

**President Mugabe and Premier Morgan Tsvangirai agreed to a power-sharing deal in September 2008. 

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Under the deal, Mr Tsvangirai will serve as prime minister and the opposition will control 16 ministries.

A High Court judge has endorsed Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s plan to delay by-elections until March next year when he plans to call a general election after arguing that his government was broke.

The Supreme Court had in July ruled that the veteran ruler must call by-elections in three parliamentary constituencies that fell vacant in 2009 by September 30.

But last week President Mugabe approached the High Court seeking an extension to the last week of March 2013 where he indicated the country would go for harmonised elections.

He argued that the government would require $40 million for the by-elections, $104 million for a referendum on the new constitution and another budget for the elections that are due next year.

His lawyers argued that there were more than 38 vacant parliamentary and hundreds of local government seats that would have to be filled if the by-elections were to be called making it a ‘mini general election.’

High Court judge president Justice George Chiweshe on Tuesday granted the application but said reasons behind his judgement would follow at a later stage.

Lawyers challenging President Mugabe’s application argued that the High Court had no jurisdiction to vary a Supreme Court ruling.

“It is rather a curious argument that the country cannot afford democracy due to poverty,” said Mr Tawanda Zhuwarara representing the three former MPs who took government to court over delays in holding the polls.

“That in itself we find so many faults with.

“They (President Mugabe’s lawyers) made their own submissions that at this juncture they cannot hold elections and we oppose that because constitutionally, that is faulty because government is  a creature of law and that and being that, it needs to comply with that law especially  in circumstances that the law has been confirmed by the higher court.”

Zimbabwe is expected to hold a referendum on the new constitution next month and the government has said it does not have enough money to organise it.

President Mugabe’s Zanu PF has been calling for fresh elections since last year but in June regional leaders said electoral and security reforms must be put in place before the polls.

The inclusive government formed four years ago was given up to June next year to organise the plebiscite where the 88 year-old leader has already been confirmed as Zanu PF’s presidential candidate.

His main challenger is expected to be Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who beat President Mugabe in the first round of the March 2008 election but was prevented from contesting the run-off election by escalating violence against his supporters.

The international community rejected President Mugabe’s one man election victory forcing him to negotiate a coalition with his former opponents in a Southern African Development Community brokered deal.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s former liberation war fighters on Tuesday stormed Finance Minister Tendai Biti’s offices for the fifth time this year demanding a revision of their pensions.

The veterans who are aligned to President Mugabe’s Zanu PF party also demanded the resignation of the minister who is  Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s lieutenant in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)  for “failing to run the economy”.

The militant protesters camped at the minister’s central Harare government offices and threatened anyone who tried to gain entry with violence.

Mr Biti was not in the office during the demonstrations after lunch hour. Zimbabwe Liberation War Veterans Association leaders said they were following up on a petition they handed over to the minister earlier this year where they also demanded a salary review for civil servants.

“We are following up on our petition that we handed over to him and we want the civil servants’ demands to be addressed immediately,” said Mr Isso Madzivanyika who led the protests.

“We are not going to leave this place until our issues are addressed.” War veterans want their pensions reviewed from about $100 a month to $600.

The government turned down requests for a salary increment from civil servants early this year citing poor performance of the economy this year.

Zanu PF and the MDC blame each other for the underperfomance of the economy with Mr Biti alleging that President Mugabe’s party had parallel government structures feeding on revenue from the country’s diamond mines.

Deputy Justice minister Obert Gutu who is also MDC spokesperson for  Harare province said the protests by the war veterans were misdirected.

“They should know that their enemy is not (Mr) Biti,” he said.

Source: Daily Nation (04/10/2012): http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/Court+clears+Mugabe+2013+election+plan/-/1066/1524424/-/i10ni2z/-/index.html