Zimbabweans to vote on new constitution
2013-03-14 19:18
Special Report
Zimbabwe's first "Cattle Bank" has just opened its books in a unique kind of banking where owners bring in their animals as collateral against cash loans.
Harare- Beleaguered Zimbabweans will on Saturday vote on
a new constitution that would, for the first time, put a definite end date on
Robert Mugabe's controversial rule.
Millions of voters are expected to back a new set of laws
that would decentralise power and limit Mugabe - and any subsequent presidents
-to two five-year terms in office.
Nearly 33 years after Mugabe led the country to
independence, the 89-year-old has, with a prod from the international
community, also backed the new constitution.
While Mugabe would see presidential power curtailed, he
would also be eligible to stay in office until 2023.
By then he will be 99 years old.
The text, which took three years to draft, also has the
support of Mugabe's rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, making a landslide
victory almost certain.
Tsvangirai's supporters have tolerated concessions to
Mugabe in the hope the referendum will pave the way for free elections, perhaps
in July.
That, they say, provides a way out of decades of crisis
marked by political terror and economic decay.
Few Zimbabweans say they have read the document, but
regular radio and television spots have encouraged people to go and vote yes.
"I think it will bring about change," said
Blessing Satumba, a 24-year-old civil engineering student. "These people
have overstayed, and when people overstay, they tend to do what they want.
Change will help."
Around 12 million ballot papers have been printed,
although many fewer people are expected to file into the 9 456 polling centres
across the country.
But evidence is mounting that Mugabe and Tsvangirai's
current unity of purpose masks a future filled with yet more tumult for
Zimbabweans, who have endured decades marked by bloodshed and hyper-inflation.
After ruling for longer than most of his countrymen have
been alive, Mugabe and his allies appear fixed on retaining power.
In recent weeks the security services, which remain
firmly in the grip of Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party, have rounded up leading
pro-democracy activists and thrown a legion of charges at them.
"The leopard has not changed colours,"
Tsvangirai noted after armed riot police broke up one of his rallies earlier
this month. The police blamed the raid on "miscommunication”.
Election-related violence
Observers say the crackdown has not yet reached levels seen
during 2008 elections, when as many as 200 people were killed and many more
disappeared, were arrested or tortured.
But it is being seen as both a warning and a possible
precursor to more severe election-related violence.
"Mugabe will only accept the result if it is in his
favour. There is no way he will accept defeat," said Takavafira Zhou, a
political analyst from Masvingo State University.
"His cronies in Zanu-PF will definitely not accept
his defeat."
Foreign governments who shepherded the "Global
Political Agreement" that brought constitutional reform, have pressed for
the elections to be free and fair.
As an enticement to Mugabe they have dangled the promise
of lifting long-standing economic sanctions.
But ensuring a fair vote may be difficult. Mugabe's
allies have already said that groups under "criminal investigation"
will be barred from monitoring the polls.
So too will observers from countries that have been
critical of Mugabe's regime.
With these rights being eroded even as they would be
further enshrined in law, some are questioning whether the constitution will be
worth the paper it's written on.
"The clampdown on dissent that is being witnessed in
Zimbabwe currently is entirely at odds with the expanded bill of rights proposed
by the new constitution," said Noel Kututwa of Amnesty International.
- SAPA
