VICTORIA FALLS — Finance minister Tendai Biti says Zimbabwe should move away from predatory politics in the next elections for it to shrug off its “pariah state” at international and continental meetings.
Report by Happiness Zengezi
Officially opening the Committee of Sadc Stock Exchanges yesterday, Biti said Zimbabweans were not benefiting by being on successive Southern African Development Community (Sadc) agendas.
“We are very optimistic on these elections. 2013 should put an end to predatory politics. We are tired of being on agendas of Sadc. We want to put a full stop to that,” he said.
Biti said he was optimistic that he would secure resources to fund the March referendum and polls likely to be held in July this year. This follows indications by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to work with Zimbabwe to take the “electoral process forward”.
UNDP representative and UN co-ordinator Alain Noudehou said he has since forwarded the letter to the UN Focal Point on Electoral Support for consideration.
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Biti said his ministry was currently working on whether the $250 million requested by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was justifiable and realistic.
He admitted that funding the constitutional referendum and elections would present a huge challenge for Treasury.
“It is going to be difficult to fund the election from the Budget because the Budget has not been performing. The Budget was already overburdened without referendum and election. The election and referendum have exacerbated the situation,” he added.
“We are going to have a (constitutional) referendum possibly in the next two months and possibly an election in July 2013.”
Biti said only peace and political stability will attract capital to the markets.