ZIMBABWE: President Robert Mugabe's ruling party yesterday pushed through amendments to Zimbabwe's constitution, paving the way for the government to nationalise seized white-owned farms and impose travel bans on "traitors".
Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, using the two-thirds parliamentary majority it won in disputed March national elections, approved constitutional changes that also set up a second legislative chamber, to be known as the senate, which critics say will be packed with Mr Mugabe's allies.
Zanu-PF mustered 103 votes for the amendments, with 29 parliamentarians voting No, 28 of them from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which has criticised the changes as a further blow to democracy.
Parliament's lone independent legislator also voted against the bill - the 17th set of changes to the country's constitution Mr Mugabe has pushed through since independence from Britain in 1980.
"This is a disastrous amendment bill," said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly.
"It simply shows how this regime continues in its intention of pulling down the country."
The amendments call for seized farms to be nationalised, effectively barring white farmers from using the courts to challenge seizures, which economic analysts say have ruined Zimbabwe's once-thriving agricultural sector.