THE ZIMBABWEAN prime minister has turned to the courts to try and get his coalition partner, President Robert Mugabe, to adhere to the terms of the country’s faltering powersharing deal, it was reported yesterday.
According to Zimbabwe's independent daily newspaper News Day, Morgan Tsvangirai is seeking an annulment of Mr Mugabe's unilateral appointment of 10 provincial governors last month because he intentionally violated the country's constitution.
In papers he submitted to the high court, Mr Tsvangirai points out that the powersharing deal worked out in 2008 requires Zimbabwe’s president to consult the prime minister before key appointments are made.
He says Mr Mugabe has not done this in relation to the provincial governor positions and other key appointments.
Last Month Mr Tsvangirai, who is leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, wrote to the United Nations, the European Union and four nations asking them not to recognise six Zimbabwean ambassadors he claimed Mr Mugabe appointed without consulting him.
Yesterday’s legal action was set in motion a day after Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party decided to press ahead with efforts to secure a general election next year, even if the constitutional reforms many believe are critical to a free and fair vote are not in place.
At a meeting of Zanu-PF’s politburo on Wednesday, senior party members endorsed their leader’s drive for new elections before June, even though the constitutional reform process is way behind schedule due to a lack of funding and intermittent violence.
“That [the need for constitutional reforms] is neither here nor there,” Zanu-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo told state media. “As a party we will find ways around it, but we are very clear that elections will be held.
“We are saying if the opposition keeps being difficult and dilly-dallying and delays the constitution-making process, we will go ahead with the elections,” he added.
The next election will be the eighth major vote in Zimbabwe since 2000.
That was when Mr Mugabe introduced his controversial land reform programme which has subsequently brought the once thriving agricultural sector to its knees and has seriously damaged the wider economy.
Critics say a rushed election without political and constitutional reforms would only favour Mr Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party, and that it could lead to the type of violence that erupted after the 2008 general election, in which up to 400 MDC supporters were killed.
Mr Mugabe has introduced 19 constitutional amendments since 2000 as part of his efforts to cling to power, so a new constitution is deemed non-negotiable by the MDC, the former opposition party, as well as civil society.
The 10 provincial governors he has appointed are all said to be loyal to Zanu-PF and are considered critical to the party’s ability to control the manner in which the rural population votes in a new poll.
The head of Zimbabwe’s new electoral commission also said last August the body did not have enough money to clean up the voters’ roll and that a lot of work needed to be done before verifiable elections could take place.