PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said
Friday that the Constitutional Court had overstepped its mandate by ordering
elections to be held by July 31 insisting that the determination of poll dates
was the responsibility of the executive.
PM Tsvangirai is once again ill advised.
“An election date is the responsibility of the executive, which has not shown that it has failed to announce such a date. SADC and the people of Zimbabwe know that an election date is a result of political pronouncements in which the judiciary has no role to play,” said PM Tsvangirai.
That is very true; it is the responsibility of the executive to name the date and the nation had expected the date to be named and elections held these last three years. What the PM is failing to grasp is that the executive has dragged its feet on this all these three years and, more significantly, that the executive does not have the power to drag out holding elections beyond the 31 July 2013.
The
GNU was tasked to implement a number of democratic reforms, write a new DEMOCRATIC
constitution and then hold free and fair democratic elections. Writing the
constitution was expected to take 18 months, the longest task, and so elections
should have taken place 6 months thereafter. In other words election should
have taken place by June 2010!
This GNU has
delayed the writing of the constitution; instead of finishing in 18 months it
took 52 months, nearly three times as long. The Copac constitution they wrote,
we now know is rubbish. They did not implement any, not even one, reforms.
All the
parties in the GNU knew the maximum life of this parliament could exist was
five years and, come the 29 June 2013, this parliament must be dissolved. The parties
have dragged out the process so they can continue to seat for the full five
years. Now what Prime Minister Tsvangirai is trying to do is extend the life of
this utterly useless parliament beyond its constitutionally permitted life of
five years!
“The Principals have a consultative mechanism that would ensure that a date is proclaimed following an agreement by all parties. This is what SADC, the AU and the people of Zimbabwe expect, not a date set up under the cover of the judiciary without a mechanism to ensure to that issues of the election environment and reforms are addressed,” argued Tsvangirai.
Yes Mr
PM, but you have admitted yourself that the “consultative mechanism” you envisage
will need this parliament’s life to be extended beyond 29 June and elections
held even as late as October!
The
constitution grants the executive certain powers but it does not grant the
executive the exclusive interpretation of what the constitution say and does
not say! It is within the Constitutional Court’s power and authority to give
its judgement on this matter. It is the correct judgement in this case not to
allow this GNU to delay holding elections that, if it had applied itself, it
should have held three years ago!
This utter
useless GNU parliament has already overstayed for any good it has done. It must
now go and good riddance too!
4 comments:
@ Budd
If the Court's ruling has made Mugabe "look like a liar and out of touch politically" then what has it made Tsvangirai look like? A political genius?
@ Jon LOw
This GNU have known all along that this parliament's life ends 29 June 2013 at the very latest and should have made sure everything necessary was done to ensure fresh elections can be held without any need to extend its life time. The MPs do not want to vacate their parliamentarian posts because many of them know they will be joining the 90% unemployed! That, surely, is no constitutional reason to extend the life of parliament!
@ Yepec
Both the Lancaster House and the Copac constitutions say elections must be held every five years. All the parties in the GNU knew the five year life of this parliament was 29 June 2013. There is no reason why this parliament had failed to ensure all the work that required MPs' input was completed in time to allow fresh elections without having to extend the life of this parliament. The MPs should be having parliament seating late into the small hours and into weekends too to ensure all was completed on time! Why are they not doing so?
We all know elections should have been held as far back as three years ago if these MPs had done their work as they had promised in their time table. They are not in a hurry to leave the gravy train and if they can they would extend their stay by as much as possible.
I have questioned the independence of the judiciary countless time but independent or not the Court’s judgment in this case is in accordance with the law.
The constitution says they must go. Common sense says they must go. The Constitutional Court says they must go. They must go and good riddance too!
Judge Malaba is concerned that holding election by July 31 will not allow this GNU to car-ryout and complete all the preparatory work.
July compromised constitutional rights for the electorate as a whole "to play a meaningful role in the electoral process", Malaba said.
Judge Malaba and Judge Patel were the two out of the nine judges who did not agree that elections must be held by July 31.
What he has clearly failed to comprehend is the GNU have known all along that this parlia-ment must be dissolved on 29 June 2013 at the very latest and should have absolutely every-thing was complete to meet that cut-off date!
Is the Judge suggesting that the life of this parliament should be extended beyond the five years stipulated in the constitution, which is what PM Tsvangirai are asking for, to reward laziness and greed? The only logical reason they want this worthless parliament's life extend-ed is so they can have a few more months to fleece the public. Allow that to happen and no elections will ever be held on time!
To suggest the nation should have no substantive parliament for up to four months is an even worse precedent to set.
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