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This comes at a time when one of the items on the roadmap – the constitution-making process – is nearing its end with the holding of the referendum on Saturday.
It is understood this would result in the revision of some of the timelines of the 2011 roadmap that was endorsed by the extraordinary summit of Sadc Heads of State and Government in Sandton, South Africa the same year because the lifespan of the Global Political Agreement is ending in June.
In an interview yesterday, a member of South African President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team Mr Charles Nqakula, said they would soon meet Zimbabwean officials to address the issue.
“We are going to interact with negotiators to the Global Political Agreement and Jomic because we are aware that there is a need for an update to the election roadmap,” said Mr Nqakula on the sidelines of the referendum observer workshop in Harare yesterday.
He said his team was also working with Jomic to monitor the constitution-making process ahead of the referendum.
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Mr Nqakula said they would engage ZEC to check its preparedness to conduct credible elections by looking at the equipment and human resources involved.
Some of the agreed timeline issues on the 2011 election roadmap by the negotiators include the lifting of the illegal sanctions, completion of the constitution-making process, media reforms, rule of law and amendments to electoral laws.
The negotiators had indicated that the draft constitution would be brought before Parliament within 60 days of the referendum but parties in Government have already indicated that these timeframes would be revised.
They also agreed that the enactment of agreed electoral amendments would be done within 45 days from July 6, 2011. These have since been amended but further amendments will be done after the promulgation of the new constitution to align the Electoral Act to the electoral provisions in the draft constitution for instance proportional representation.
The negotiators mandated all parties to vigorously call for the removal of the illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West.
However, the continued existence of the illegal sanctions remains a sticky issue on the roadmap since the European Union and the US are reluctant to lift the illegal embargoes.
According to the roadmap, they also agreed that voter education and mobilisation for voter registration would be done in 30 days while voter registration and preparation of a new voters’ roll would be done in 60 days while inspection of the voters’ roll and production of the final voters’ roll would be done in 45 days.
On rule of law, the negotiators also agreed that there would be meetings of the principals with the Attorney – General, Commissioner-General of the Police, heads of other security and intelligence institutions to ensure full commitment to operate in a non-partisan manner consistent with the GPA at a timeframe determined by the Principals.
Since the inception of the Inclusive Government several media organisations have been registered, which also saw two new radio stations coming on board.
Negotiators, however, failed to agree on staffing of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, security sector reforms, allegations of state – sponsored violence and the deployment of security forces in the country.
They also disagreed on the MDC formations’ call for enactment of an Act of Parliament regulating the operations of the CIO.
Zanu-PF argued that the issue was neither a GPA one nor an election issue and was being raised as an attack on the institution.
Zanu-PF also rejected calls by the MDC formations to amend the Public Order and Security Act, saying it was already done in 2007 by all the political parties through negotiations.
Online Reporter