Harare - Leaders of five major political parties in Zimbabwe have resolved that last week’s decision by the Constitutional Court to have elections held by July 31 is not practical.
In a landmark ruling, the Constitutional Court last week directed President Robert Mugabe to proclaim by June 29 the dates for elections, and hold the polls by July 31.
President Mugabe has since said he would announce the poll dates when he returns from Japan, where he was attending the 5th Tokyo International Conference on African Development and stressed he would not listen to further calls to delay the elections, which constitutionally are due by end of this month.
Leaders of the five parties - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Decratic Change (MDC-T); another faction splinter faction led by Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube; former Finance Minister Simba Makoni of Mavambo Kusile Dawn; Dumiso Dabengwa of ZAPU and Wilson Khumbula of Zanu Ndonga - said reforms should be implemented before elections could be held.
The five parties at their meeting on Wednesday said they would be taking their position to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which is holding a special meeting on Zimbabwe in Maputo, Mozambique, this weekend.
“The leaders expressed their reservations about the practicality of the July 31 deadline set by the Court and resolved that they will communicate their position to the SADC,” said Tsvangirai, who spoke on behalf of the other party leaders.
The parties said they were ready to participate in a “credible, free and fair election” on condition a number of reforms were implemented. The reforms vary from electoral to media changes, which the leaders said must be addressed before polls could be held.
The Zanu-PF party, led by Mugabe, has welcomed the decision of the court to have elections held by end of next month. Its main rival, MDC-T, which recent opinion surveys have indicated was likely to lose the forthcoming polls, wants them delayed till October.
The SADC was the facilitator to negotiations resulting in the Global Political Agreement and the establishment of the coalition government involving Zanu-PF, MDC-T and the other splinter MDC party, five years ago, following disputed elections in 2008. – SAnews.gov.za-NNN
