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Mugabe yields to Sadc pressure

Politics
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has acceded to the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) leaders’ pressure to seek an extension of the July 31 poll date after Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa yesterday filed a court application.

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has acceded to the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) leaders’ pressure to seek an extension of the July 31 poll date after Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa yesterday filed a court application.

REPORT BY CHARLES LAITON

But MDC-T secretary-general and Finance minister Tendai Biti immediately dismissed the move, saying it was an act of “unilateralism”.

“I am not aware of it. It’s not possible. It cannot be done unilaterally. Principals already have a meeting tomorrow (today) where the matter will be resolved. We cannot continue with that unilateralism that hauled Zimbabwe before Sadc heads of state. We can’t continue with that infantile attitude,” Biti said last night.

Chinamasa, who was tasked by Sadc on behalf of government to seek the extension at the Constitutional Court (Concourt) deadline ordering elections by July 31, in his ordinary court application, said he wanted harmonised election dates moved to August 14 this year.

His move followed a Sadc resolution directing Mugabe to postpone presidential, parliamentary and local government elections at a dramatic extraordinary summit in Maputo, Mozambique, on Saturday following Mugabe’s unilateral proclamation last week of the election date as July 31.

Mugabe, however, was forced to back down by his fellow Sadc leaders, who accepted the argument of the two MDC leaders Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube that the date was too soon to hold a proper poll.

Tsvangirai and Ncube petitioned Sadc facilitator to the Zimbabwe crisis South African President Jacob Zuma seeking his intervention over Mugabe’s unilateral proclamation of the election date.

In the application yesterday, Chinamasa cited Jealousy Mbizvo Mawarire (as the private citizen who initially sued Mugabe to set the poll date), Tsvangirai, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, Ncube and the Attorney-General’s Office as respondents.

Chinamasa said he was seeking the indulgence of the Concourt given the directive set out to him by the Sadc Extraordinary Summit in Maputo last week.

“During the proceedings at the Summit, I was directed to make an urgent application before this court to seek a postponement of the date for the harmonised elections from July 31 to August 14,” Chinamasa said.

“I make this application conscious of the fact that this honourable court has made an order and rather than violate it by simply ignoring it as has been suggested by certain political parties cited hereunder. I seek the indulgence of this honourable court given the directive given to me by the Sadc Extraordinary Summit in Maputo.”

The minister also urged the court to note that at the Sadc summit, Tsvangirai said: “Mr Chairman, the issue of the elections is not a legal issue, but a political process.”

While seeking to urge the court to grant the application in his favour, Chinamasa also urged the Concourt to consider that Zanu PF was not listed as one of the parties whose views were considered by the summit.

“It will be noted that the judgment of this honourable court was not part of the list of annexures to the facilitators’ report to the Sadc Summit,” he said.

A communiqué issued after the Sadc summit in Maputo “acknowledged the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe on the elections date and agreed on the need for the Government of Zimbabwe to engage the Constitutional Court to seek more time beyond the July 31 2013 deadline for holding the Harmonised Elections”.