One of the negotiators speaking on condition of anonymity said the provisions in the roadmap could even push the polls to 2013.
The roadmap is a result of long running negotiations between Zanu PF and the two MDC formations under the watchful eye of South African President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team.
For many, the roadmap was a welcome breakthrough as it ended the uncertainty over the date of the next elections that President Robert Mugabe appeared determined to have this year.
President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara have been handed the document that will serve as the country’s time table to an election whose result will not be contested.
But for Jonathan Moyo, Zanu PF’s self-appointed spin doctor and service chiefs who had openly removed the gloves in their push for elections before the end of the year, the conclusion of the roadmap represents a crushing defeat.
The soldiers, through the Manicaland based 3 Infantry Brigade commander Brigadier General Douglas Nyikayaramba, demanded that elections be held this year arguing that the inclusive government had failed to work.
Moyo, who is now infamous for his ever-changing political positions maintained that the roadmap was another attempt by Western imperialists to advance their illegal regime change agenda.
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The former professor of political science turned politician argued that if elections could not be held this year, they must be held in 2016.
“It is now clear in the national interest that the next harmonised general election must be held this year in 2011, failure of which it should be held in 2016 and not at any time in between,” Moyo wrote in one of the articles.
“The current Sadc (Southern African Development Community) focus on the so-called election roadmap, which Morgan Tsvangirai takes to mean elections in 2012 or even in 2013 as understandably suggested by Cde Patrick Chinamasa is untenable not least because these suppositions are based on the fallacy that the 2008 election was disputed, when the fact is that it was inconclusive.”
Moyo claimed that “apart from being retrogressive, the current focus on the election roadmap undermines the GPA (Global Political Agreement) and the constitution of Zimbabwe both, which have clear election benchmarks that make for better election roadmap than what’s being negotiated as part of a GPA that was negotiated and signed on September 15, 2008.”
Roadmap signpostsSadc, through its point man on the Zimbabwe crisis, President Zuma, put its foot down and ensured that the parties adopted a roadmap that stipulates clear timeliness for the next polls.
These signposts include the adoption of a new constitution, extensive media and electoral reforms. Analysts said the adoption of the roadmap was a blow to Moyo, the securocrats and hardliners in Zanu PF who looked determined to see the collapse of the inclusive government.
Zanu PF’s disappointmentZanu PF supporters were also desperate for the elections to be held under the present conditions, which would still allow for the party to use it’s tried and tested methods of voter intimidation and rigging.
However, Trevor Maisiri of the Africa Reform Institute, a Harare- based think-tank warned that the celebrations could be premature as Zanu PF always had something up its sleeve.
“I do not think that the issue of not holding elections this year is really a victory against Jonathan Moyo or Zanu PF per se,” he said.
“I think it’s a temporary set-back on their intended plans but it must not be seen as having totally derailed the plans that the party has or anything intimated by Jonathan Moyo.”
Maisiri said Zanu PF would not give up a position without having a strategy to mitigate its losses.
“In essence Zanu PF could have given up on its position for elections in 2011 based on two enforcements.
“Firstly, it could have been read as a direct confrontation with Sadc, whose report has glaringly indicated that there are some pre-electoral processes that need to be undertaken prior to the actual election itself.
“Secondly, Zanu PF could have given up as a way of ensuring that there is some insinuation of victory on the part of those who are in opposition to its preferences in handling the election roadmap.”
Besides, Maisiri said, the election roadmap had loopholes that might still give Zanu PF an advantage in determining the date of the next elections.
He said the roadmap was too reliant on the constitution-making process where there were no guarantees that it could be successfully concluded.
Mugabe in the past has warned that if the proposed new constitution is rejected by the people, the heavily amended Lancaster House charter will be used to organise the next polls.
Maisiri said the failure by the parties to agree on security sector reforms might also complicate the path to free and fair polls.
