PM rules out coalition government

Politics
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says he is fed up with coalitions and has no plans to include Zanu PF ministers in his government in the event that he wins the next elections.

PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says he is fed up with coalitions and has no plans to include Zanu PF ministers in his government in the event that he wins the next elections.

BY NQABA MATSHAZI

Tsvangirai’s spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka said the prime minister was certain of victory and had no plans to form a coalition government as suggested by a new Standard Bank research report.

“There is nothing like that, there will not be any coalition with anyone,” he said. “We are concentrated on winning resoundingly and going it alone in forming the government because we are tired of a coalition government.”

A recent report by Standard Bank indicated that Tsvangirai was open to a coalition in the event that he won the next elections.

“Based on the latest opinion polls, PM Tsvangirai suggested the MDC would presently win around 65% of election votes in a free and fair election,” reads the report, dated April 9 and compiled by Stephen Bailey-Smith.

“Under such a scenario he [Tsvangirai] would be willing to run a coalition government giving cabinet places to Zanu PF politicians.”

In the past it has been reported that Tsvangirai has tried to reach out to reformists within Zanu PF and the Standard Bank report may be confirmation that there have been such overtures.

Tsvangirai, the report noted, was against the indigenisation policy and would “embrace [an]  International Monetary Fund [IMF] funded reform package, although he was wary of adopting a one-structural-adjustment-package-fits-all approach”.

Presenting possible scenarios to the banking group, Tsvangirai said an outright victory for him was the most likely scenario, while they were other ghastly scenarios.

However, Tamborinyoka insisted that he had no idea where this was coming from, as the MDC-T was assured of certain victory.

Tsvangirai, according to the report, said the second scenario was one where there would be no clear winner and there, instead would be a coalition, whose existence will be complicated by the scrapping of the Prime Minister’s post under the new constitution.

“His second scenario, which was less favoured and given less weight, was that the elections did not deliver a clear winner, but rather a similar muddle-through coalition government,” the report continues. “Under this scenario, policy direction was less clear and economic recovery would be slower and political stability harder won.

Re-engagement with the international community would take longer than under the first and favoured scenario.”

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition has already noted that the next election was less likely to be violent, as Zanu PF, which has often been blamed for instigating violence, sought legitimacy from Sadc and the African Union, by ensuring a credible election.

‘Chances of violence slim during polls’

The Standard Bank report says Morgan Tsvangirai was optimistic that the next election would be relatively peaceful and chances of violence were slim, due to measures implemented by the coalition government.

“There was broad cross-party and wider popular support for the idea of moving the country forward and away from the political paralysis that has fostered so much economic hardship in recent years.

“[The] cross-party agreement on appropriate political process is now laid out in the constitution, which is widely accepted by all sides and brings considerably more structure to proceedings,”  the report reads.

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