General election possible this year

a pledge by the Constitution Parliamentary Select Committee to finish all necessary processes as scheduled after successfully mobilising the funds needed.
In separate interviews yesterday, Copac co-chairpersons Cde Paul Munyaradzi Mangwana (Zanu-PF) and Douglas Mwonzora (MDC-T) said all systems were in place to have a referendum conducted before September 30.
They, however, said referendum and general election dates remained the executive’s prerogative.
This follows a recent communiqué by the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security stating that the inclusive Government should complete all steps necessary for holding elections as per the terms of the Global Political Agreement.
The communiqué from the Sadc Troika Summit held last week read in part: “The inclusive Government in Zimbabwe should complete all the steps necessary for the holding of the election, including the finalisation of the constitutional amendment and the referendum;
“Sadc should assist Zimbabwe to formulate guidelines that will assist in holding an election that will be peaceful, free and fair, in accordance with the Sadc Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.”
Yesterday, President Mugabe’s spokesperson Mr George Charamba said this was in sync with the Head of State and Government’s thinking.
“The accent is on finalisation of the constitutional process, something Zanu-PF and the President have been agitating for.
“The endgame is elections, again something all parties must accept as an unavoidable pang of the routines of democracy . . .
“Penultimately, the Troika is urging Sadc to assist Zimbabwe towards peaceful, free and fair elections by ensuring polls that are held under Sadc Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.
“As a matter of fact, these guidelines are already domesticated and are now part of our electoral laws,” said Mr Charamba.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa yesterday also said the three GPA parties – Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC – were meeting to review the agreement and craft an election roadmap.
“The remaining deliberations are on the elections roadmap. We have to identify activities that we have to do preceding the elections and the timeframes.
“The negotiations will continue tomorrow (today) and we hope to be through by noon. We have invited the facilitation team and we hope to meet them later in the day.”
The constitution-drivers said they were geared to meet the September 30 deadline they had set for themselves.
Cde Mangwana said: “All the systems are in place as the US$9 million needed to finish the constitution-making process is now available.
“US$2,5 million came from Government while the remainder was from donors.”
He said thematic committees would meet for 15 days to deliberate on public submissions made in the outreach phase.
This process will be followed by the actual drafting, which should be complete by the end of May.
“The draft constitution will be ready by the end of May after which an all-stakeholders’ conference will be convened to discuss it.
“By the end of June, we must be in a position to take the draft to Parliament after which the referendum will follow, maybe in July.
“Let me hasten to say the date for the referendum is the prerogative of the executive,” he said.
Mr Mwonzora confirmed that funding challenges were over as donors had “renewed their romance” with Copac.
“We are coming from a meeting right now with UNDP officials where the funding situation has been discussed . . . it is possible to finish the process by September 30,” he said.
He said meeting the September deadline was subject to a number of factors including release of all the funds on time, allowing Copac workers to do their work with minimum disturbances and political tolerance.
MDC-T has been raising unsubstantiated claims of political violence in a bid to have elections deferred to around May 2012.
Party leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai has been accused of taking these claims to the Troika Summit.