Zimbabwe has been in election mode since Zanu PF resolved at its December 2010 conference in Mutare to press for the termination of the inclusive government.
When the resolution was passed, the unity government was hardly two years old, having been formed in February 2009.
Zanu PF, led by President Robert Mugabe, claimed the unity government it formed with the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations had become dysfunctional.
The resolution rattled the business sector, which made it known to the authorities that an early poll would reverse the little gains that were recorded on the economic front after the formation of the unity government.
Zanu PF MP also came out fighting saying they would demand compensation if Parliament was dissolved prematurely.
In March, President Mugabe while addressing the launch of the Zanu PF anti-sanctions petition, admitted that an election this year was near impossible because the Global Political Agreement (GPA) had not been implemented.
But conveniently, President Mugabe continued to beat the election drum at public fora. The climax was the five-day Zanu PF conference held in Bulawayo last weekend where the party passed another resolution calling for elections next year.
Again the resolution was made without consideration of conditions on the ground that made an election in 2012 almost impossible.
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The drafting of a new constitution, which is a prerequisite for any free and fair poll, is still far from complete with realistic observers foreseeing a referendum at the end of the year.
Electoral, security and media reforms the GPA says are a must, have still not been implemented, thanks largely to Zanu PF’s reluctance to embrace change.
As usual Zanu PF is not without excuses. They accuse Finance minister Tendai Biti of starving the agriculture sector of funding.
Yet we all know that most of Biti’s 2010 Budget went to financing President Mugabe’s frequent trips to Asia and to United Nations’ summits where it would have sufficed to send junior government officers.
Security ministries led by Zanu PF functionaries also gobbled up millions of dollars at the expense of service ministries such as those of education, health and social services.
It is therefore disingenuous for Zanu PF to use the excuse about the Budget to call for elections as claimed by Midlands’ governor Jaison Machaya in one of our reports yesterday.
Machaya claimed President Mugabe had taken it upon himself to source funds to finance a farming inputs scheme because Biti had not allocated money for agriculture.
Zanu PF must realise the harm it is doing to the economy by keeping Zimbabweans in a perpetual election mode.
The mere mention of elections in Zimbabwe sends shivers down the spine of every Zimbabwean who witnessed any election since independence.
It is therefore our plea to Zanu PF to for once consider what is best for Zimbabweans and channel its energies towards cleaning up the mess it dragged this once prosperous country into through its ruinous policies.
