Daily News
2 April 2012
David Coltart, the smaller MDC faction’s legal secretary says President Robert Mugabe’s insistence on elections this year without reforms is a blunder he will live to regret.
Coltart was speaking at a discussion on “Elections and costs in Zimbabwe this year†last week where he said holding of elections would only be possible after the necessary reforms and GPA.
“The political party that is going to force through this election will most likely alienate itself from very powerful leaders in the region and donors who have invested political capital to make sure some normalcy returns to this country.
“We will be literally slapping the African Union, Sadc and President Zuma who have invested and taken a lot of strain in trying to convince these organisations. The UNDP has sunk in millions of dollars to drive this process,†said Coltart.
He said he did not see any of the MDC formations participating in a sham election and that the only parties that would likely take part would be Zanu PF and some “stooge parties and whoever forces this election will incur frightening political costs.
“There is a cost to Zanu PF because an election is most likely to cause divisions within the party because they have no consensus within that party to the holding of elections this year.
“It will be a huge political cost that could be Zanu PF’s biggest undoing and may result in the creation of two separate political entities. Mugabe cannot afford any more divisions over failure to consult with a view of going ahead with elections,†Coltart said.
He added that another cost will be political stalemate while sanctions will get tightened. The little legitimacy that Zanu PF had in 2008 will be eroded.
MDC spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora agreed with Coltart saying Mugabe wanted a quick exit from this presidency because it was an international embarrassment.
“Mugabe was not elected in 2008 and he knows it. He has met with young democratically elected leaders over the past four years and its humiliating him.”
“But we are saying if Zanu PF is genuine about elections this year, why don’t we just agree on the modalities of a free and fair poll then hold elections tomorrow — open up the airwaves, repeal oppressive legislation and reconstitute the electoral commission,†Mwonzora said.
Zanu PF’s representative at the discussion Goodson Nguni said Zuma or Sadc will not tell his party on what to do.
“Read my lips, you will not see more of Lindiwe Zulu (Zuma’s political advisor) here much more and Zuma will not be telling us what to do with our country anymore.
“The president of Zanu PF and the country’s head of state has categorically stated that he would pull our party out of the GNU because we are tired of working with imperialist stooges and the people of Zimbabwe will be the final arbiters on who they want to rule them. We must afford them that chance this year,†Nguni said.
Coltart said Zimbabwe did not have the money to fund elections this year and Zanu PF would probably have to fork out money to fund the plebiscite.
“We cannot print anymore money, that era is over. Now we have to spend hard cash and I can speak with a degree of certainty that our capital account is in the red.
“The country may have to forgo social delivery services like education which is already compromised to fund elections,†Coltart said.