The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn) has accused political parties involved in the constitution-making process of subverting public views and pushing their individual party agendas in the drafting of the countrys new constitution.
In a report titled: Respect for Human Rights and Implications for Free And Fair Elections, the civic society body said as long as the politicians remained entrenched in their party positions, the countrys new governance charter will not be reflective of general public views as captured during the outreach programme.
Indications reflect the desire for a people-driven constitution has been overtaken by political party preferences which have taken centre stage and affected the progress of the process, said Zesn in a 14-page report released this week.
Zesn cited false starts to the process and the many disturbances that have rocked the exercise to date. The thematic committee stage was marked by disruptions due to political parties misunderstanding on methodological issues.
Questions of the quantitative against qualitative ways of interpreting data were central to the conflicts that ensued and delayed the work, it reads.
The report also said that parties in the Global Political Agreement, Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC agreed to the promotion of values and practices of tolerance, respect for human rights and non-violence, but differences in political ideologies as well as lack of political will to reform remained evident.
