A contribution from a Kubatana member:

Reform traditional leadership. I think one of the key reforms necessary for a sustainable election in our country is traditional leadership reform. Most rural districts in the country are not free to exercise their rights due to the influence of traditional leaders. They execute their duties partisanly & are in political party structures which is unconstitutional.This raises suspicion from people of credibility of elections. The government & civic groups must engage traditional leaders & massively educate them about their role in the community & avoid being horse ridden by political parties.

Check out a recipe for free and fair elections published on Kalabash – from the streets to the web. Ingredients include:

4 tablespoons of dignity
A pinch of pride in Zimbabwe and the people outside of party politics
Half a cup of democratic processes
A splashing of reflection on the last decade
An ounce of foresight

The function of a civil resistance is to provoke response and we will provoke until they respond or change the law. – Gandhi

SAPES Policy Dialogue Forum

The Role Of Political Parties In Resource Governance In Southern Africa

Date: Friday 28 June 2013
Time: 5pm – 7pm
Venue: SAPES Seminar Room, 4 Deary Avenue, Belgravia, Harare

Moderator: Gilbert Mudenda, SAPES Trust (Zambia)
Panellists: Yao Graham, Third World Network (Ghana), Masego Madzwamuse, OSISA (Botswana)

All Welcome

Zimbabwe’s election is in legal shambles – But no one really seems to mind. Yesterday, Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court postponed indefinitely Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa’s half-hearted application to have the Court’s 31 July election deadline extended. Chinamasa’s application came at the recommendation of SADC, which, understandably, was concerned that President Mugabe’s proclamation of a 31 July election date was done unconstitutionally, and set Zimbabwe up for an election which was illegal before it even started. Instead, the court will hear Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube’s applications about the need for an election extension tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Nomination Court is also scheduled for tomorrow, in which parties wanting to contest in the illegal and unconstitutional 31 July election will put their candidates forward. Zimbabwe’s political parties have had their primaries, fair, rushed or otherwise. According to David Coltart, the Movement for Democratic Change led by Welshman Ncube will nominate candidates tomorrow because “although 31 July election is illegal, we must contest.”

Attempts to get an answer to the question “Given that 31 July date for #ZimElection is illegal, will yr party be nominating candidates tmrw?” from the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai have yet to be responded to, but it seems likely they will also be fielding candidates at nomination court tomorrow.

But, on 13 June, Morgan Tsvangirai himself said of the 31 July election date: “As Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and the President of the MDC, I will not accept a situation where Zimbabweans will yet again be railroaded and frog-marched to another illegitimate and violent election.”

So – What does refusing to be railroaded mean, exactly, if it doesn’t include refusing to contest in an illegal and unconstitutional election? As Marko Phiri pointed out when the 31 July date was announced, “if Mugabe can unilaterally call for polls, what is to stop him from declaring himself the winner” (regardless of whether he actually won or not.

If you contest in an election which you know is illegal just based on the date for which it was scheduled and the way in which it was proclaimed, what leg do you have to stand on if you try and protest its legality later?

About state media fiction writers:

“Masks beneath masks until suddenly the bare bloodless skull.”
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses