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NewsDay

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We need elections now

Opinion & Analysis
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party are dead right! Zimbabwe needs elections now to end this four-year unproductive government of national unity.

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party are dead right! Zimbabwe needs elections now to end this four-year unproductive government of national unity.

NewsDay Editorial

The country cannot continue to slide into an economic and social morass triggered by a dysfunctional government which lacks cohesion due to ideological differences.

The economic situation in the country continues to deteriorate and is now characterised by liquidity problems, non-availability of lines of credit and very little foreign direct investments.

The country has no money for either economic or social development. That is why the business community, like other well-meaning Zimbabweans, is now desperately pushing for elections.

There is no doubt that Zimbabwe is now crying for elections more than ever. We need elections like yesterday, but the quality of polls will determine if we are able to extricate ourselves from the political and economic precipice we are on.

Instead of Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai squaring it up in the courts on the elections date, the two protagonists should immediately caucus on the matter and come up with a win-win situation.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai hold the key to free and fair elections. Before pronouncement of an election date, the two leaders should agree on an array of reforms to democratise the environment.

After all, their work was easily cut out for them by the Global Political Agreement which meticulously set out those reforms the inclusive government should embark upon before fresh elections are held.

Among the envisaged reforms are legislative, security and media reforms. The first and easiest reforms should be on the media. We need an open media if the inalienable right to a free Press is to be upheld.

The country’s electronic media has negatively been dominated by the public-owned, but State-controlled ZBC since Independence and its now time that the monopoly comes to an end.

The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) should issue broadcasting licences to private players for pluralism in the airwaves should be the buzz word.

The country desperately needs more television stations to educate, inform and entertain the masses for the betterment of the public.

Government should also immediately abrogate or amend draconian laws that unduly restrict media freedom and plurality among them, Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act; Public Order and Security Act; Broadcasting Services Act; Officials Secrets Act; Prisons Act; Censorship and Control of Entertainment Act; Courts and Adjudicating Authorities (Public Restrictions) Act; the Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act; and the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.

After media reforms, we need to overhaul our security sector to ensure professionalism prevails. We cannot have a situation where army generals, police and prison chiefs interfere in political processes and discourses.

Once we reform our security organs, legislation and the media, Zimbabwe would be in a better situation to have quality elections this year. Indeed, we need elections now, but it is the quality that matters!