Editorial Comment: Time GPA parties abandoned comfort zones, went for elections

using the current Lancaster House Constitution.
It was refreshing, as we reported yesterday, to hear MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai echoing the President’s sentiments that we go for elections under the current Constitution if the envisaged new constitution is rejected at the referendum.
Such convergence was long overdue, as the inclusive Government has clearly outlived its tenure and usefulness.
Its purported dysfunctionality has been acknowledged across the board and it’s high time a cohesive government was put in place to pull in one direction for nation building.
At inception, the inclusive Government was supposed to last for two years after which the parties were to go for elections using the Kariba Draft to put in place a cohesive government to move the national agenda.
The constitution-making process that today is being used to justify prolonging the inclusive Government was never the reason the GPA was signed or the inclusive Government formed.
The GPA was signed to pave way for the inclusive Government whose brief was to foster an environment of socio-economic and political stability in readiness for holding fresh elections.
And it is high time Zanu-PF, MDC-T and the MDC came out of their comfort zones      for the sake of the tens of thousands of         Zimbabweans being held hostage by the  moratorium in the GPA and the millions suffering the depredations of a dysfunctional coalition.
It is scandalous that to this day, over 34 constituencies do not have representation in Parliament following the deaths of legislators over the past four years.
And with the GPA putting a moratorium on the holding of by-elections, the constituents have no one to represent them or take their concerns to the relevant offices.
The parties should spare a thought for the electorate that put so much faith in their representatives at the last election.
As we count down to the elections, let’s do so as team Zimbabwe. A team agreed on the national interest, the raison d’etre for the Zimbabwean state, differing only in the modalities of safeguarding the national interest not who should safeguard it.
As President Mugabe said, elections are a purely domestic affair. Outsiders only come in by invitation and as observers or monitors, not participants.
And that includes even our brothers in Sadc who have been helping us find each other at the table over the past four years. We are sure they know the score.
So the onus is on all in Government to put aside petty squabbles and recall the reason for the establishment of the inclusive Government.
Elections are needed as of yesterday.
In fact, a truly national constitution will not emanate from the political compromise that is the GPA and inclusive Government or the horse trading that we hear may be used to resolve contentious issues, the so-called ‘‘parked issues’’; but will come from national consensus under a cohesive dispensation.
So rather than having constitution-making as a pre-requisite for elections, it may actually be prudent to go for elections and then have the resultant government spearhead constitution-making in an environment free from political compromise.
The ongoing process, given current indications, may spawn another Lancaster House-type compromise document.