GPA was treated as a ceasefire document- ICG

The Global Political Agreement which ushered the inclusive government that has been running the country over the past four years was treated as a “ceasefire” document and as a framework for further negotiation rather than as a formal agreement to be implemented.

Though the country has a new constitution, this central drawback remains largely unchanged as resistance to reform continues to characterise the country’s uneven power-sharing arrangement, which has now come to an end.

This is the view of the vice-President of the International Crisis Group Mark Schneider who felt that the country was heading for another flawed election which threatened internal violence, regional instability and a return to international isolation.

Schneider was giving testimony to the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Examining prospects for democratic reform and economic recovery in Zimbabwe, on Tuesday.

He said that although President Robert Mugabe had already set 31 July as the election date, there were was still:

• No agreed and final registration roll,
• No electoral law approved by Parliament,
• No candidates formally nominated or approved for president or for 358 seats in Parliament,
• No time for a campaign after candidates are named,
• Little time for ballots to be printed,
• Less time for ballots to be distributed to 9 449 polling stations,
• No testing of electronic tabulation processes,
• No agreement for domestic electoral monitoring,
• No authorisation for international electoral monitoring, and
• No transparent indication of how the election will be funded.

Besides, there were also internal political struggles within the three key political parties.

“Within the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), “hardliner” and “reformist” camps are fighting over who will succeed 89-year-old President Robert Mugabe in the future.

“The opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is struggling with infighting and limited capacity to mobilise its supporters, let alone to find avenues for electoral cooperation with the other MDC faction, which itself is divided.

“Some officers high in the security and intelligence forces seem unwilling to contemplate a possible opposition win and their rhetoric and increased deployment in swing provinces constitute intimidation,” Schneider said.

Key issues that needed to be resolved to enable a credible election process were:

• An end to State-sponsored violence
• Security sector reform, and
• Formation of adequately funded, credible, independent electoral authorities.

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