Having realised that the constitution-making process was nearing completion stage, where it is supposed to be presented to the Second All Stakeholders Conference, taken to Parliament before the people are given the opportunity to vote for or reject the draft constitution, Zanu PF has temporarily succeeded in stopping the whole process. This has finally sealed the argument as to who is stalling the constitution-making process and the long-held view that the party has never wanted this idea of a new constitution from day one. The impending deadlock on the constitution has been planned.
The political gladiators continue to muddy the political waters. Had it not been for Sadc, we could be in the middle of an election right now. It took Sadc, at its meeting held in Luanda, Angola, to stop the party hawks, who were clamouring for elections this year with or without the new constitution.
After having lost the battle, the party never stopped planning against the draft constitution. The opportunity came when the draft was finally out and the party convened meetings to amend the draft for their own good. Now we are told that the principals are to have the final say on the charter. Even President Mugabe confirmed this after the recent Maputo Sadc summit. One wonders what Zanu PF would be saying if it was the MDC proposing the amendments to the draft constitution.
The fact that the party failed to agree that they had endorsed the draft constitution has nothing to do with the people’s views being left out as we are meant to believe.
Another school of thought suggests that the former ruling party has a grand plan to force a deadlock with the hope that the coming elections are held under the Lancaster House Constitution. The party hopes that if a deadlock is declared, political parties can be forced by Sadc to agree on setting up minimum conditions to hold the elections.
