SANF 08 No 42
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has said he is open to negotiations with anyone after the 27 June elections, following completion of the legal process.
Mugabe told election rallies outside Harare that the focus now must be on completing the election run-off as enshrined in the Constitution.
“We are open to discussion but we have our own principles,” Mugabe said. “If they have problems they can always bring them forward and that is how we came up with amendments to the AIPPA and POSA [national legislation governing information and media, and security].”
This perspective of proceeding with the presidential run-off election is supported by legal and constitutional experts such as the chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly, Lovemore Madhuku, who is not aligned to government.
Madhuku said the announced pullout by the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democracy Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T) is illegal and that he remains a candidate.
“The legal position is that candidature for the run-off or the second election is not a voluntary exercise, you give your consent when you contest the first election.”
Tsvangirai pulled out of the election on Sunday and sought “refuge” at the Netherlands embassy, a move that coincided with a United Nations Security Council debate that was intended to have him declared president based on the fact that he got more votes in the first round of elections, although he did not reach the target of more than 50 percent, resulting in the run-off.
This was the proposal from Belgium supported by Britain and the United States among others.
Negotiations among the 15 members of the Security Council, including South Africa, Libya, China and Russia, saw them agreeing to a watered down resolution that called on the Zimbabwe government to bring an end to incidents of violence, allow more campaign space for the opposition, and release political detainees.
The government has denied responsibility for these activities, saying that violence is caused by political confrontation between supporters of the two contesting parties and is not as widespread as inferred by the media but localised, that the MDC-T candidate has been moving around the country during the campaign period, that there are no “political detainees” and that the Secretary-General of the MDC-T is facing criminal charges.
This is seen as political posturing by both contending parties in advance of the poll, and government has accused the MDC-T of undertaking activities, including a campaign of violence, aimed at cancelling a poll which they fear losing.
There is confusion over a statement issued this week in the name of the SADC Organ Troika following a meeting of two SADC leaders hosted by Swaziland, which is deputy chair of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.
The meeting was attended by only one other Head of State, Jakaya Kikwete of the United Republic of Tanzania, thus seen by some member states as a bilateral meeting without legitimacy in SADC.
The SADC Troikas are made up of three heads of state or government, and the SADC Organ Troika is chaired by Angola, which not only did not call the meeting as would be usual, but apparently was not even present.
The communiqué issued following the meeting on 25 June said the meeting was chaired by “His Majesty King of the Kingdom of Swaziland, who is the Deputy Chairperson of the Organ. The meeting was attended by the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, His Excellency, President Jakaya Kikwete.
“The meeting was also attended by the Right Honourable Absalom Dlamini, MP, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Swaziland, and the Executive Secretary of SADC, Dr. Tomaz Augusto Salomão.”
Another unusual aspect at Summit level was the absence of the SADC mediator on Zimbabwe, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who would have been expected to brief his colleagues at a normally constituted meeting.
Tanzanian President Kikwete is the current chair of the African Union, which meets in Summit next week in Egypt, and some analysts believe he was trying to get a SADC position to take to the meeting.
The document entitled “Communiqué, The SADC Organ, Troika of Heads of State and Government” calls on all parties in Zimbabwe to use dialogue as a tool to solve the political impasse following the withdrawal of the opposition from the presidential run-off.
According to the communiqué, the main objective of the meeting was to consult on the latest developments in Zimbabwe and the political situation in Malawi.
Regarding Zimbabwe, reference was made to a recent meeting of the ministerial Troika of the Organ and a meeting of the Inter-State Politics and Diplomacy Committee.
Among other things, the communiqué said the meeting re-affirmed SADC’s commitment to assist the parties in Zimbabwe “whenever necessary as it has been doing to date”.
SADC has deployed some 400-election observers throughout the country for the polls on Friday.
Meanwhile, the South African negotiating team is in the country to continue its contacts with both parties which have been underway in Pretoria.
With regard to the situation in Malawi, the SADC Organ Troika meeting highlighted that it is deeply concerned with the political standoff, and appeals to the Parties concerned to refrain from inflaming the situation lest the situation worsens further.
