New York Times
By Celia W. Dugger
Published: August 26, 2008
JOHANNESBURG: Jubilant opposition legislators in Zimbabwe’s Parliament broke into song and dance on Monday after their candidate won the powerful position of speaker of Parliament, defeating a nominee backed by President Robert Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF.
The victory of the opposition candidate, Lovemore Moyo, by a vote of 110 to 98, underscored the opposition’s newfound control of Parliament. Despite widespread attacks on its members, the opposition holds a majority in Parliament for the first time since Zimbabwe achieved independence from white minority rule in 1980 — and now seems ready to wield that power.
The opposition’s rejoicing follows a grim period for the country since elections in March. Human rights groups say more than 100 opposition supporters have been killed and thousands tortured and beaten by Mugabe’s state-sponsored enforcers. Opposition members of Parliament, who feared until the moment of voting on Monday that Mugabe would somehow deprive them of their March victory, sang, “ZANU is rotten!”
“Parliament will cease to be a rubber-stamping house,” Moyo said triumphantly in his acceptance speech. “It’ll ensure that progressive laws are passed.”
Mugabe has held power for 28 years, but with his loss of Parliament, he and his party will probably find it difficult to govern the economically ruined nation unless they close a power-sharing deal with the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change.
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Talks to reach such a deal have been deadlocked over how to divide executive authority between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai fared better than Mugabe in the last credible election, in March, then boycotted the June presidential runoff, protesting the violence against his supporters. Moyo’s election as speaker cements both Tsvangirai’s position as leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition and the opposition’s primacy in Parliament.
“It means Robert Mugabe has lost effective control over Parliament and cannot dictate his legislative agenda as he has in the past,” said David Coltart, an opposition senator. “It’s a historic event.”
The question now is whether the opposition’s majority in Parliament will provide a new impetus to restart the talks, especially since Tsvangirai will be in a stronger position and Mugabe faces an adversarial legislature.
The vote for speaker appeared to backfire on Mugabe, who unilaterally summoned members of Parliament to be sworn in on Monday and to convene officially on Tuesday, for the first time since their election almost five months ago. Opposition officials said they feared that Mugabe’s party was trying to reclaim control of Parliament by luring away opposition legislators or by intimidating them with threats of arrest so that they would not show up.
Police officers arrested two members of Parliament from the main opposition party on Monday morning, stirring fears of a broader crackdown. One of the two arrested members, Shuwa Mudiwa, was released a few hours later and rejoined Parliament.
But efforts by the governing party to sow division within the often fractious opposition failed, political analysts said. In the secret balloting, members of Parliament from a breakaway opposition faction appeared to have rallied behind Tsvangirai’s candidate for speaker rather than their own nominee, who was supported by Mugabe’s party.
Political analysts said it was also likely that Moyo had won a few votes from legislators in the governing party, which is showing increasing signs of internal division about who should succeed the octogenarian Mugabe.
As speaker, Moyo will play a pivotal role in guiding the passage of laws and running Parliament.
Despite the victory on Monday, the opposition’s majority is narrow. If united with its splinter faction, which has 10 seats in Parliament, the opposition controls 110 votes to 99 for Mugabe’s governing party, ZANU-PF.
Under the agreement that formed the basis of power-sharing negotiations, any decision to convene Parliament or form a government was to be made only by consensus of the governing and opposition parties. Opposition officials have said that Mugabe’s decision to call Parliament into session was a repudiation of that agreement.
Also, according to the state news media, Mugabe on Sunday appointed a number of provincial governors and three senators to the upper house of Parliament. The opposition had expected those jobs to be filled as part of a negotiated settlement.
“Mugabe has forged ahead with convening Parliament, and this is very unfortunate because, as a party, we had hoped something might come out of the interparty talks,” Luke Tamborinyoka, the director of information for the opposition party, said Monday before the vote.
Tsvangirai has refused to sign a deal that would leave Mugabe as the cabinet leader and make Tsvangirai prime minister and deputy cabinet leader, answerable to Mugabe, fearing that he and his party would be swallowed up by ZANU-PF, according to opposition and governing party officials.
Mugabe’s spokesmen have accused Tsvangirai of being a pawn of the United States, Britain and the West.
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the minister of information, was quoted as saying in a state-owned newspaper on Monday, “Selfish and external interests must not be allowed to frustrate President Mugabe’s meticulous nation-building skills as a tried and tested leader.”
But the opposition’s control of Parliament changes the calculus of power.
“Mugabe will have to come to the negotiating table to strike a deal to save himself politically,” said Sydney Masamvu, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group. “We are starting to see a genesis of the transition in Zimbabwe. The talks are the only opportunity Mugabe has to prepare for a graceful exit.”