Tsvangirai warns of looming election disaster
29 August 2012
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Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and leader of the MDC-T party has warned of a possible election disaster looming if regional leaders do fail to address the current national political deadlock to do with the draft constitution and deal with President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party.
President Robert Mugabe recently rejected the draft constitution which his legal team approved and signed after a two and half year rigorous consultation process. Soon after the draft constitution was produced, Mugabe’s party then announced that they were not in agreement with its key components resulting in a deadlock.
The MDC leader has cautioned that tampering with the draft constitution could spell disaster for the elections. Tsvangirai has rejected President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party’s proposed amendments to the draft Constitution and is calling for the draft to the taken to the public.
“if this process is collapsed, it will spell doom to the prospects for a credible, free and fair election, ” said Tsvangirai in Harare on Tuesday.
He said the people of Zimbabwe are the real principals and final arbiters who should take the decision in a referendum to accept or throw away the Draft Constitution.
Below was the PM’s statementon the constitution:

Tsvangirai warns of looming election disaster-


“Perhaps the most important debate in the country is about the Constitution. I want to make it clear that neither the Principals nor the political parties have any veto power over the Constitution.
Article 6 of the GPA is clear that the Constitution-making process should be driven by Parliament. Some of us have no wish to revise that position and in any case, the Principals cannot renegotiate a document agreed by those with our delegated authority.
We cannot negotiate in perpetuity. This Constitution is a product of years of hard work which included sourcing the views of the people and negotiations between the political parties. So we say no to any attempts to dedicate more time in a process where the country has already committed huge resources and time.
It is time the people made a decision through a referendum and political parties should refrain from pretending to speak on behalf of the people when the people reserve the right to speak for themselves in a referendum.
This draft is a product of careful and painstaking negotiations on a give-and-take basis.
In this referendum, every party should reserve the right to campaign for or against this Constitution because it is high time we gave the people of Zimbabwe the right to make a determination on this important national process. The new draft by our friends in this government is not an amendment to the draft, but a completely new document which is at variance which what the people said. For example, the people were clear on the need for a devolved State but our friends have completely removed any mention of devolution in their new document.
So let’s take the draft Constitution to the people who are the real Principals in this matter. The Principals to the
GPA cannot substitute the sovereign people of Zimbabwe to determine how they should be governed. Let the people of Zimbabwe in a referendum be the final arbiters, not three individuals.
A new Constitution is central to elections and to the reform agenda in Zimbabwe and if this process is collapsed, it will spell doom to the prospects for a credible, free and fair election”
 
ZANU PF restored presidential powers.
Tsvangirai’s cautioning comes as Zanu PF at the weekend convened an emergency meeting where they forced 30 amendments to the document, saying the draft in its current state does not reflect the people’s views.
The Zanu PF draft strengthens presidential powers over parliament including in the right to declare war and explicitly outlaws homosexuality, same sex marriage and dual citizenship. It also scraps a proposed independent prosecuting authority, clauses giving more executive authority to provincial governments and gives complete immunity from prosecution to the president.
Meanwhile Sotuh Africa’s president Jacob Zuma’ currently the SADC appointed mediator arrived in Harare to attend the staelmate over the draft constitution.

18 Replies to “Tsvangirai warns of looming election disaster”

  1. Bla Miki I can forgive you for your Border Gezi brainwashed retarded mentality. Land reform and indeginisation programmes are noble ideas but how they were implemented is the cause of concern. When you have zanoid cabinet ministers or members accumulating land or businesses out of entitlement there is no benefit at all but pure greed and gross self enrichment. Why are you refusing a land audit in the land reform programme is a success? Why are threatening to take over foreign owned companies when you do not have the capital to purchase those shares you are demanding? The problem with you zanoids majaira zvemahara and a country can not work that way. You are bleating about the removal of a revolutionary gvt but you are forgetting that you were beaten fair and square in 2008 elections.You went on to murder, rape, kill, torture, maim, abduct and persecute to ensure a zanoo pee eff victory. Without the puppets the whole lot of you would have been hung by now at the Hague or probably hung on every Msasa tree in Harare. Devolution is necessary as it empowers communities to make their own decisions on development, why should some snoring old fart in Harare decide my fate and destiny. Homosexuality is a private issue and a lifestyle between two consenting adults who are we to judge what people want with their lifes. If Rastafari’s decide it is in their religious right to smoke weed in public who are we to infringe that or why should we allow vana madzibaba kutvaroora ma minors or underage when it is paedophilia it is worst.

  2. Oh! I see. Taking back the land to former whíte farmers, rebuking the empowerment and indegenisation of the economy, removal of an elected (revolutionary) government and replacing it with a puppet arrangment, subdividing the country along tribal grounds and embracing the spirit of madness, that of homosexuality is all you are crying for Mukadog? Never in a thousand years!

  3. They shld use better pictures of the PM if they are any. It seems he is eating “tuzvi” whilst old Bob is eating cake. Anyway , one man’s meat is the other’s poison and the Macheka gal will crown it “beauty lies in the eyes of the opportunists”. You have one life after all.

  4. Pressure to do what is right, what has been agreed and expected by all peace loving and hard working zimbabweans who have been taken for granted for a very long time.

  5. Why is it always that, “regional leaders must put pressure on Zanu Pf?” what sort of pressure are you traitors expecting from the regional block?

  6. Morgay, YOU are chasing wind. COPAC is a dead process already. Tanga waita 2/3 majority in parlimaent before you start shouting about any constitutional reform. zpf u know it, haidi, ine mbiri yechigandanga. whats your plan B. great captains are seen during a storm not in a calm sea

  7. Zanoo pee eff has never negotiated in good faith, they have always wanted to stall all processes on progress in this GPA. The GPA stipulates, constitutional reform, security sector reform, opening of media space, cessation of political violence, judicial and human rights re-alignment. To date there has been minimal progress for obvious reasons therefore chematama is merely highlighting caution against fast tracking elections for there is need for credibility by implementing the outstanding issues.

  8. Cowards as usual,the man is already sensing defeat at elections and starts flip flopping as usual,who told him that the draft constitution is final? If that was the case then COPAC should have called for a referandum,the three political parties which are signatory to GNU have to all agree first and iam sure Chematama is fully aware of this including his comrade in arms Welshman Ncube.What has infuriated both of them is that the foreign views they wanted to smuggle into the new constitution have been blocked by ZANU(PF)and their masters are not amused.

  9. Delaying tactics, the work of the political turncoat, ZANU PF so called spin doctor. Wasting time and misleading the nation, when pple of his constituency are wallowing in poverrty and living in a semi savage state. Shame on you

  10. These antics will not save muppets from the coming electoral landslide and complete loss of power.

  11. Well said Save, and thank you for bringing up Article 6 of the GPA which stipulates that the Constitution-making process should be driven by Parliament. Zanu PF, therefore, has no mandate to re-write the constitution. Zanu PF are actually costing themselves by delaying the constitution making process, because their candidate is getting older and older each day, and by the time the finally agree, the MDC-T which, if the results of a recent poll opinion which showed the MDC-T had lost support were to be trusted, will have re-strategised and put their act together, while the people will loose faith in Zanu PF for failing to appreciate provisions of the GPA which they are a signatory to.

  12. Zimbabwe is not yet a fully constitutional democratic nation so you can’t just be relying on numbers,wake up or walk out, thus politics

  13. Zimbabwe is not yet a fully constitutional democratic nation so you can’t just be relying on numbers,wake up or walk, out thus politics

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