Zimbabwe polls to be held on June 24, 25

By M. S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, MAY 16. Zimbabwe is to have a two-day poll, on June 24 and 25 June, to elect a new Parliament (House of Assembly). This was announced in a gazette notification in Harare.

Under the Constitution, the House of Assembly has 150 members, of whom 120 are elected; and the remaining 30 are nominated. In the dissolved Parliament, the ruling ZANU-PF held all but three of the seats. Of the nominated members, 10 are traditional chiefs, eight are provincial Governors and the remaining 12 are appointed by the President. The Council of Chiefs is meeting on June 14 to elect from among them the 10 traditional leaders who will then be nominated to the House of Assembly. The deadline for filing nominations for the elective seats is May 29. Two weeks are provided for the inspection of electoral rolls which have over 5 million registered voters.

The dates of the general election are well ahead of the ``window period'' of six months that is available under the Constitution to Government from April 11, the date on which Parliament was dissolved. It also sets at rest the ``apprehensions'', freely given rein to by the leaders of the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its supporters inside and outside Zimbabwe, that the President, Mr. Robert Mugabe, and the ZANU-PF were manipulating the ongoing ``land invasions'' to create an intolerable law and order situation, thus justifying the imposition of a state of emergency and an indefinite postponement of elections.

Veterans of the Zimbabwe's liberation war have occupied hundreds of white-owned farms in the last two months; and 20 persons, four of them white, only whose names have figured in the media, have been killed in the clashes that have accompanied these ``land invasions''.

The MDC has welcomed the announcement of the election date. The MDC Secretary General, Mr. Welshman Ncube, has however, expressed his fears that the polls may not be free and fair. Last week, the MDC had threatened that it would boycott the elections on the ground that they would not be free and fair, though three days later it backed down.

The MDC, however, insists that these elections should beheld under ``international supervision'' to ensure that they are conducted fairly. This is also the stand of the British Government. The European Union is to set up an ``election monitoring operation''. It is not clear if this is what the Opposition and its backers demand when they insist that the elections should be held under ``international supervision'', or whether the ``monitoring'' process amounts to less than this demand.

The announcement of the dates for elections comes in the context of renewed initiatives to seek a solution to the land question in Zimbabwe. The Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Mr. Don McKinnon, is currently in Harare and is expected to meet Mr. Mugabe.

The South African President, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, who begins a two- day visit to Britain later this week, is expected to discuss the Zimbabwe issue with the British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair. Mr. Mbeki has maintained, much to the anger of his critics that the land problem in Zimbabwe is related to its colonial heritage as well as, more immediately, to Britain's failure to make good its commitment to release funds for the Government's land reform and land restitution programme.

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Section  : International
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