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(TALKZIMBABWE) Tsvangirai flip flops on elections

Tsvangirai flip flops on elections
Sapa/DPA/TZG reporters
Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:01:00 +0000

PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Tuesday indicated that he is not ready to go to elections next year as indicated by President Mugabe and pushed for by the South African president who is facilitating the all-party talks in Zimbabwe on behalf of the Southern African Development Community.

South African President Jacob Zuma over the weekend said PM Tsvangirai needed to be flexible in his demands if the inclusive Government was to make any progress. Zuma also indicated that the best route for Zimbabwe was to hold fresh elections.

The South African president is charged with the task of facilitating the resolution of issues threatening the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that created the Zimbabwe's inclusive Government last year, and is pushing for elections next year.

"President Zuma cannot push for elections in Zimbabwe," Tsvangirai told the German Press Agency dpa. "The elections in Zimbabwe will be defined by the GPA. The GPA says after the referendum the president and prime minister will set the date for the election."

This is a turnaround for Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party, who last year indicated that the only way Zimbabwe would resolve outstanding issues was through fresh elections.

Tsvangirai has also gone against his ally, Botswana President Ian Khama who in November last year, said in a State of the Nation address that new elections would end the "political feuding" that has handicapped the inclusive Government in Harare.

"I must here, however, express concern at the continued failure of Zanu PF to fully honour the spirit of the power-sharing agreement," Khama said at the time.

Tsvangirai's flip flop is also not in line with a statement made by his party's spokesman Nelson Chamisa late last year, that fresh elections would be the best alternative if some issues in the GPA remain unresolved.

The PM said that once ongoing talks produce a draft constitution, a referendum would be held to endorse it, and only then would a date be set for elections.

"So I think that people should not preempt a process which is already there and which is understood by all parties to be the law," he added.

Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe formed an inclusive Government nearly a year ago to end a political crisis following an inconclusive election in June 2008.

The MDC-T wants President Mugabe, among other things, to fire central bank governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana, saying their appointments were unconstitutional.

The appointments were made when the MDC-T was delaying joining the inclusive Government over the running of the Home Affairs portfolio.

Tsvangirai also wants Roy Bennett, who was convicted for punching a Cabinet minister in Parliament, installed as Deputy Agriculture Minister. Bennett faces terrorism charges and his case is still at the High Court.

President Mugabe's Zanu PF party on the other hand has accused the MDC-T of reneging on its commitment to persuade the US and the European Union to lift illegal ruinous sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.

The MDC-T party, for ten years, campaigned vigorously for the imposition of the sanctions.

Zanu PF also wants the MDC-T to stop giving interviews to, and condemn, pirate radio stations that illegally beam hate messages into Zimbabwe. - Sapa/DPA/TZG

Labels: ELECTIONS, JACOB ZUMA, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI

posted by MrK @ 5:39 PM