CONSTITUTION MAKING AND ELECTIONS

The Constitution Making Process and Elections

“If nothing else is left, one must scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity.” Naddezhda Mandelstam

I have been reluctant to be part of the discourse about the constitution making process which has provided more heat than light. What COPAC has gathered so far is information from an elite driven discourse that left the people by the way-side. It would therefore be difficult for anyone to convince me that in Zimbabwe people can drive any national process or that they have any burning desire to do so. What I can safely say is that the constitution making process in Zimbabwe has been elite led, elite managed or elite manipulated. This is a reality and a tragedy of elitism. I had the privilege of observing the COPAC led outreach meetings and noted with grave displeasure that the process was reduced to a contest between political parties – an arena for bitter struggles because parties viewed it as a process of crafting new rules of the political game, rules which would prescribe who has the power. With the new meta-rules that are likely to govern the new political order and ideally leveling the political field the process became an arena of partisan struggle for supremacy.

The three protagonists in the inclusive government have been declaring their readiness for the elections. One would shudder to imagine why? Why would ZANU PF want an election when it enjoys the lowest popular support in its post independence history, unless the party has suicidal tendencies? And why would MDC (T) desire early elections when the psychological impact of the June 2008 elections violence is still logged in the voters’ souls? It needs more than three years for the fear factor to start dissipating and for the voter to make an effective and meaningful choice. And why would MDC (M) want an election when it is comprehensively in disarray, unless it is also predisposed to committing suicide? And why would the current crop of members of parliament want to end their tenure unless they also need to be exorcised of their suicidal inclination. In fact early elections are no one’s best option. It is of paramount importance to note that there is no inherent virtue in early election before the country has done its homework it terms of crafting a new constitution, allow time for the new constitution to take root, clean the voters rolls that is allegedly inflated with phantom voters and develop the infrastructure for a contest that produces valid and undisputable elections. In short Zimbabwe is not ready for an election.