Levy calls for postponement of runoff in Zimbabwe

Levy calls for postponement of runoff in Zimbabwe
By Staff Reporters
Monday June 23, 2008 [04:01]

PRESIDENT Levy Mwanawasa yesterday called for the postponement of the June 27 presidential runoff in Zimbabwe to avert a looming political catastrophe in the SADC region. And President Mwanawasa has described as mere tantrums assertions by some Zimbabwean government officials that he was a surrogate of the West vis-à-vis the Zimbabwean political situation.

Addressing a special press briefing on Zimbabwe at State House, President Mwanawasa - who is also SADC chairperson - said the current political situation fell far short of the SADC principles and guidelines on the conduct of free and fair elections.

"It is scandalous for SADC to remain silent in the light of that. I am sure alot of people expect SADC to do something," he said. "The situation in Zimbabwe is moving too fast, (Morgan) Tsvangirai has just announced that he is going to pull out from the runoff."

President Mwanawasa said going by the environment that characterised the campaigns leading to the presidential runoff, it had become apparent that no free and fair elections could take place in Zimbabwe.

He said it was also clear that the political situation in Zimbabwe was not in conformity of the 2004 SADC elections guidelines and principles on elections because the opposition had been denied opportunities to sell itself to the people.

"The conduct of free and fair elections is not simply judged on the election day but on the activities prior to the day, the day itself and thereafter," President Mwanawasa said. "The current political environment in Zimbabwe falls far short of the principles and guidelines I have just outlined."

He said it would be of tremendous embarrassment to the Southern African region if the pending presidential runoff in Zimbabwe was allowed to take place given the unfavourable political climate.

He said the International Press Agency had sent information to SADC and the African Union complaining that several freelance journalists had been attacked during campaigns, which he said were in invented commas.

President Mwanawasa said he had received fresh reports that a public rally that the Zimbabwean High Court had allowed the MDC to hold in Harare yesterday had been prematurely dispersed by security personnel and several people were beaten in the process. He said Tsvangirai had been arrested as many as five times in a space of 10 days and that the MDC had been denied access to state media.

President Mwanawasa further said President Mugabe's recent warnings of a civil war should the MDC emerge victors in the presidential runoff had sent the electorate in Zimbabwe into a state of fear.

"President Mugabe, arguing that only God can remove him from office has publicly said that he will not accept an MDC victory," President Mwanawasa said.

President Mwanawasa said he would be failing in his duties if he did not give the troubled sister Republic of Zimbabwe timely advice to postpone this Friday's runoff polls to a later date and allow for the engenderment of a favourable political climate.

President Mwanawasa said even though he had only managed to confer with only four of the 14 SADC heads over his feelings that the presidential runoff in Zimbabwe be rescheduled, he felt it was the right thing to do. He said he had used his discretionary powers in order to avert a situation where the political environment in that country does not deteriorate further.

President Mwanawasa further said it would be bad if other SADC leaders did not agree with him on his position over Zimbabwe. He also complained that he was being denied information as chairperson of SADC. He said that the only information he was relying on was from intelligence and press reports as well as from other stakeholders.

And Morgan Tsvangirai has pulled out of this Friday's presidential runoff election saying the prevailing circumstances are not conducive to hold a free and fair election.

But justice, legal and parliamentary affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa said if Tsvangirai formally writes to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to inform them about his decision to quit the race, the remaining contender, President Mugabe, will be declared winner.

At a press briefing yesterday held at his Harare's Straathaven residence, Tsvangirai said there was no way the MDC could go into the election when President Mugabe had declared that he would not accept defeat and that he had already declared war.

"Given the totality of these circumstances, we believe an election that will bring about the will of the people will be impossible. The conditions prevailing today do not permit the holding of free and fair elections.

Zimbabweans have shown how resilient they can be but we will not ask them to vote if the vote will be a risk to their lives. We, in the MDC have decided that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election," he said, after cataloguing a host of reasons that would make it impossible to hold a free and fair election.

"On March 29, we participated in the election because we considered it fairly democratic. On June 27, Mugabe has declared war and we'll not be part of that war. Mugabe has created difficult conditions for the runoff. He has declared that he will not accept defeat.

What can the MDC be expected to do to legitimise this election whose outcome has already been predetermined by Mugabe? By pulling out, we are not legitimising Mugabe. We'll not play Mugabe's game," he said.

Tsvangirai, however, said he would next Wednesday articulate the party's full position on the way forward after exhausting consultations with stakeholders. He said it was impossible for the MDC to go into the election given the current violent conditions in which 86 party supporters have been killed, 200,000 displaced and 20,000 of their homes destroyed.

He said ZANU-PF had deployed a terror campaign having deployed militia and war veterans who have been terrorising villagers in retributive campaigns.

"ZANU-PF has set up 3,000 bases that they are using as terror caches. Death squads are on the loose," he said.

He said MDC structures had been decimated by the arrest of party leaders and 2,000 activists and polling agents.

Tsvangirai also said ZEC had been staffed with intelligence officers and war veterans and that the electoral body was no longer in control of elections. He said MDC had not been able to campaign, its rallies having been banned by police.

"Today MDC was denied a chance to hold its only rally and the venue was besieged by ZANU-PF militias who beat up and assaulted our party members in full view of the police," said Tsvangirai.

But Chinamasa said the law did not require a candidate to inform the country about the decision to quit through a press conference.

"For Tsvangirai's decision to be valid, he must formally write to ZEC advising them that he's formally withdrawing from the race in which case it will leave only one candidate in the race and there will be no poll being taken whatsoever.

This will mean that the remaining candidate in the race, in this case President Mugabe, shall be declared winner," Chinamasa said. "If he doesn't write formally to ZEC, the law will take it that he's still in the race and people will vote on the 27th.

With respect to his reasons, it is not true that he is pulling out because of the reasons he is citing. The truth of the matter is that Morgan and his leadership spent a lot of time gallivanting across the world so they left the party unattended to and when he returned, he was shocked because he found that the tide had changed against him. Morgan has withdrawn from the race to avoid embarrassment on Friday."