Word: voting
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Good guys like elections. Bad guys fix or nix them. Or so goes the thinking that underpins much of Western foreign policy. But in Zimbabwe, it appears to be the other way around right now: hardline President Robert Mugabe is pushing for a vote while his pro-democracy rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, is dragging his feet. What gives...
...three decades of allegations that his party members have beat up the opposition, tampered with ballots and ignored previous election results, the 85-year-old autocrat appeared to change tack in December by calling for a new general election. Though he did not set a date, Mugabe said a vote was "not far off." The 11-month-old government of national unity, in which he serves as President and Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), serves as Prime Minister, has "lived more than half its life," Mugabe told the annual conference of his Zimbabwean African National Union...
...South African President Jacob Zuma, who has acted as the mediator between the two sides, also backs the idea of a poll. On Jan. 17, his spokesman Vincent Magwenya said Zuma was "looking forward to an election in 2011" and encouraging both sides to "park" outstanding disagreements so a vote could take place...
...Tsvangirai has come out against an election. In an interview with TIME earlier this month, the former trade union leader rejected any vote before both sides decided on a new constitution. Only after a draft is agreed upon and put to a referendum - the process set out in the agreement under which Mugabe and Tsvangirai agreed to share power - would elections be possible, he said. "People should not preempt process ... which is understood by all parties to be the law," he added. (See the top 10 news stories...
...hand, both Mugabe and Tsvangirai find themselves fighting from unaccustomed corners, but on the other, their underlying motivations have not changed. Mugabe's one guiding principle remains to hold on to power. Having already survived a number of elections that went against him, he is likely calculating that a vote under the present rules is better than changing the rules altogether. This is also why Tsvangirai is insisting that the rules be altered. He wants a new government set-up in which the head of state -himself, Mugabe or anyone else - doesn't have such tight control over the country...