Zimbabwe’s constitutional reform to challenge Mugabe’s powers
07 FEB 2013 07:34 – AP
Zimbabwe’s Parliament has begun discussing a new constitution that will
reduce the president’s powers and setup a peace and reconciliation
commission.
The talks, which took place on Wednesday, also highlighted political
impartiality from President Robert Mugabe’s longtime loyalists in the police
and military.
The 160-page draft, completed after three years of tension between
hardliners and reformists during often bitter and violent nationwide
canvassing, will be voted on in a national referendum slated for April,
ahead of elections to end a shaky coalition formed after the last disputed,
violent polls in 2008.
Regional mediators made a new constitution a key condition for fresh
elections. Lawmakers will not be able to change the draft unless there is a
last minute revolt against it in the legislature, Veritas, an independent
legal monitoring group, said on Wednesday.
There was no immediate sign of that in the Harare Parliament House on
Wednesday.
Paul Mangwana, co-chair from President Mugabe’s party of a parliamentary
panel in charge of rewriting the Constitution, told legislators the lengthy,
delayed process cost about $45-million.
“It has been a long journey and we think [we] did our best for the country,”
Mangwana said.
He described the funding, including United Nations and foreign donations, as
money well spent.
“People will ask why, but democracy is very expensive,” Mangwana said.
‘Yes’ vote
All main party leaders have called for a “yes” vote in the referendum after
years of violence, uncertainty and economic meltdown that has left the
nation weary and demoralised.
The Parliament debate is expected to wind up after several sittings in
coming days, followed by a month for distribution of the proposed
constitution to electors nationwide, said Veritas.
The draft shows Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change both made concessions over
points in dispute.
According to the proposed constitution, a person can be president for a
maximum of two five year terms, but the term limit is not retrospective.
That means Mugabe, who turns 89 this month and has been in power for 33
years, can run for president again and if he wins could rule to the age of
94, and even to 99 if he ran for, and won, a second term.
But according to the draft, Mugabe would no longer have the power to veto
legislation and presidential decrees, which Mugabe has often used
unchallenged, would need parliamentary approval, mostly by a two-thirds
majority of lawmakers.
The president would not be able to arbitrarily appoint the 10 powerful
provincial governors from his party and provinces will be able choose their
own chair, or premier.
Peace and reconciliation commission
Increasingly frail at public appearances, Mugabe is seen to have recently
lost much of his trademark combative spirit. Tsvangirai’s party agreed not
to insist that presidential candidates nominate a running mate for the next
poll, so Mugabe will not have to pick a possible successor in his fractious,
rivalry-ridden former ruling party. The draft allows the victorious
president to personally appoint two vice presidents.
The new constitution binds the police and military to be impartial and not
to “further the interests of any political party or cause”. Military
commanders, accused of condoning past political violence blamed on Mugabe
militants, have refused to salute Tsvangirai (60), repeatedly vowing
allegiance only to Mugabe – the nation’s first black ruler and leader of
the guerrilla war that led to independence from Britain in 1980.
A beefed-up Constitutional Court with powers over all other courts and the
new peace and reconciliation commission are proposed as reforms to a
judicial system critics say has long been packed with pro-Mugabe judges and
officials.
The Constitutional Court would deal with violations of the charter and abuse
of power or governance.
The proposed constitution says the often violent seizures of white-owned
farms since 2 000 restored land to black people who were “unjustifiably
dispossessed” of it by colonial-era settlers and states that the seizures
cannot be reversed.
The new reconciliation body was praised as “a hopeful sign that victims of
political violence may obtain some justice” by the Open Society Initiative
for Southern Africa, a non-governmental organisation that encourages
democracy.
Despite continuing arrests of rights and democracy activists in Zimbabwe,
the Constitutional changes represented some “significant gains”, said the
organisation.
The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa said the proposals were
“better than feared but far from ideal”. – Sapa-AP