Ncube appeals to Sadc

Politics
MDC leader Welshman Ncube has reiterated that an election is not possible before the beginning of August.

MDC leader Welshman Ncube has reiterated that an election is not possible before the beginning of August.

Report by Nqaba Matshazi

He said claims by both President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that polls can be held in June or July were “preposterous”.

In a strongly-worded letter to Sadc Troika chairman, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete last week, Ncube accused Mugabe and Tsvangirai of trying to fix an election date without following the dictates of the GPA.

“We write to you because we are gravely concerned that the attempts to unilaterally fix an election date without consulting us and without due regard to the imperatives of the law and the election roadmap will inevitably lead to a disputed election outcome,” Ncube wrote.

“It is thus obvious to us that attempts to fix an election date are premature until such a time that the legal framework for the elections has been completed.

“What we must be focusing on is the expeditious implementation of the election roadmap so that an election date can be agreed upon based on the achievement of the necessary preconditions as should be contained in the roadmap.”

Of particular concern for Ncube and his party was failure by the inclusive government to amend the Electoral Act and to align it with the new constitution, arguing that an election could not be held before this was done.

He said after the new constitution is gazetted, it will have to wait for 30 days before parliament could start debating and if this was fast-tracked, it would take at least seven days before it is signed into law.

Ncube said from there, the law provides for a 30-day voter registration and inspection outreach programme after the new constitution is gazetted and parts of it come into effect.

“The parties have to negotiate and agree on necessary amendments to the Electoral Act to bring it into line with the new constitution,” Ncube wrote.

“Once agreed, those amendments have to follow the usual enactment processes such as clearance by the Cabinet Committee on Legislation and cabinet before being presented to parliament where they would have to be scrutinised by the Parliamentary Legal Committee for consistency with the constitution before being debated and passed by both the House of Assembly and Senate. No one can predict with any amount of certainty how long this process will take.”

He said, what was clear was that no election proclamation could be made before the amendments were in place.

“It is clear that a minimum of at least 70 days is required before an election proclamation can be made.

“This means that no lawful election proclamation can be made before at least the first week of June 2013. The law requires a minimum of 58 days from the date of the proclamation to the date of the election.

This means that on a best case scenario, no lawful election can be held before the first week of August 2013.

“This best case scenario has not taken into account the time it will take to put in place amendments to the Electoral Act,” he continued.

NCUBE TAKES SWIPE AT MUGABE, TSVANGIRAI

In the letter also copied to South African President Jacob Zuma, the facilitator on the Zimbabwean dialogue, Ncube also accuses Mugabe and Tsvangirai of deliberately excluding his party from “GPA processes”, saying this was in violation of a Sadc resolution.

Among a host of grievances, Ncube says Mugabe and Tsvangirai set a date for the referendum, agreed on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission without consulting him, a clear violation of the Sadc resolution.

Mugabe has publicly declared that an election should be held by June 29, at the expiry of the current parliament’s term, while Tsvangirai has said he favoured a July poll.

Ironically, Tsvangirai has filed a High Court application, seeking to stop Mugabe from proclaiming June 29 as the election date, saying he had not been consulted.