Zimbabwe
Elections to be hold 24^th and 25^th of June

afrol.com, May 16^th 2000 - Mugabe finally has signed a declaration, setting the date of the parliamentary elections. The announcement was to be published on Tuesday in the governmental bulletin, 'The Herald', an employee of the government printing office told Reuters on Monday. 

The MDC opposition at first was content that there was set a date, though it did not believe the elections will be held freely and fairly. But within hours of the news, MDC stated it would take legal action to seek a postponement, citing the countrywide political violence, which has claimed 20 lives in the past two months. 

The elections are supposed to be hold on the weekend of 24^th and 25^th of June and are for 120 of the 150 parliamentary seats. President Mugabe will personally appoint 30 of the parliament's 150 members. Mugabe’s party ZANU-PF is now in control of 147 of these 150 seats, but under fair conditions, the MDC opposition would have a fair chance to gain the majority in the June elections. The government party lost a referendum in February over a new constitution, which marked his biggest political defeat during the 20 years ZANU-PF have held power in Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980. This indicated that there for the first time was a real possibility of an opposition takeover, which in turn led to the political violence initiated by the president himself, according to the MDC.

The office of the president, however, does not stand for elections, and regular presidential elections are set for the year 2002. A major defeat for the government party, though, might render Mugabe’s situation difficult and lead to anticipatory presidential elections as well. If the opposition wins a reasonable number of seats in parliament, it is likely to push for a vote of no confidence against Mugabe, which might force him to call for presidential elections.

The MDC has stated several times that it will participate in the elections, in spite of the well-documented encroachments against the party in the electoral campaign carried out by ZANU-followers so far. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesman Learnmore Jongwe earlier told IRIN that given state-sponsored violence and intimidation, "there are absolutely no conditions for free and fair elections. But one thing we have resolved as a party is that we are not going to boycott. We owe that to our supporters and the country". Unless the government again decides to postpone elections, there is every indication that we will see an electoral thriller between the ZANU and the MDC in June.

The opposition has called for international observers to participate in the elections, hoping that their documentation of the electoral process might prevent some of the foreseen fraud. Representatives from the European Union (EU) and the Commonwealth have already arrived Harare. They are to negotiate the participation of electoral observers with the Mugabe government and to observe "the conditions for holding free and secure elections."

It is expected that electoral observers from the EU and other countries are due to arrive Zimbabwe well in advance of the actual elections, and as such also observe the electoral campaign. "We want international observers on the ground and Mugabe held personally responsible for the violence," MDC legal secretary David Coltart told IRIN last week, commenting the violence in the electoral campaign so far.

See also the "IRIN focus on the election"

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