The Constitution Making Process and Elections
“If nothing else is left, one must scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity.” Naddezhda Mandelstam
I
have been reluctant to be part of the discourse about the constitution
making process which has provided more heat than light. What COPAC has
gathered so far is information from an elite driven discourse that left
the people by the way-side. It would therefore be difficult for anyone
to convince me that in Zimbabwe people can drive any national process or
that they have any burning desire to do so. What I can safely say is
that the constitution making process in Zimbabwe has been elite led,
elite managed or elite manipulated. This is a reality and a tragedy of
elitism. I had the privilege of observing the COPAC led outreach
meetings and noted with grave displeasure that the process was reduced
to a contest between political parties – an arena for bitter struggles
because parties viewed it as a process of crafting new rules of the
political game, rules which would prescribe who has the power. With the
new meta-rules that are likely to govern the new political order and
ideally leveling the political field the process became an arena of
partisan struggle for supremacy.
The
three protagonists in the inclusive government have been declaring
their readiness for the elections. One would shudder to imagine why? Why
would ZANU PF want an election when it enjoys the lowest popular
support in its post independence history, unless the party has suicidal
tendencies? And why would MDC (T) desire early elections when the
psychological impact of the June 2008 elections violence is still logged
in the voters’ souls? It needs more than three years for the fear
factor to start dissipating and for the voter to make an effective and
meaningful choice. And why would MDC (M) want an election when it is
comprehensively in disarray, unless it is also predisposed to committing
suicide? And why would the current crop of members of parliament want
to end their tenure unless they also need to be exorcised of their
suicidal inclination. In fact early elections are no one’s best option.
It is of paramount importance to note that there is no inherent virtue
in early election before the country has done its homework it terms of
crafting a new constitution, allow time for the new constitution to take
root, clean the voters rolls that is allegedly inflated with phantom
voters and develop the infrastructure for a contest that produces valid
and undisputable elections. In short Zimbabwe is not ready for an
election.
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