Zimbabwe opposition defends support of constitutional amendment

Sep 20, 2007, 19:25 GMT

Johannesburg/Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition Thursday fought off accusations of 'treachery' from rights groups opposed to the party's decision to back controversial amendments to the constitution that will allow President Robert Mugabe to handpick a successor.

The ruling ZANU-PF dominated parliament backed by members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Thursday voted unanimously in favour of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (Number 18) Bill, said MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa.

The vote followed a surprise decision by the MDC earlier this week to back constitutional changes it had initially opposed.

The party has justified its decision as a confidence-building measure. But there has been an outcry from some civic groups who have been fighting for much wider democratic reforms.

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a prominent rights group that is lobbying for a whole new constitution on Thursday, dismissed the MDCs decision as 'treachery.'

'The MDC's decision to abandon the principle of a people-driven constitution and opt for a process driven by political parties in parliament is an act of treachery,' the group said in a statement.

'The NCA wishes to repeat here that Amendment (No 18) does not, in any way, advance the interests of the people of Zimbabwe.'

If passed by the Senate and signed into law by the president, the bill will allow parliament to choose a successor to the 83-year-old Mugabe should he die in office or step down before his term expires.

Government opponents say the amendments will entrench Mugabe's hold on power by giving him the mandate to handpick his successor, who could then be endorsed by parliament without going to an election.

The Zimbabwean president has already been in power since independence in 1980 and is expected to stand for a fourth term in office in elections next March.

Writing in the private Financial Gazette newspaper on Thursday, Rashweat Mukundu, the director of the Zimbabwean branch of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, said the constitutional amendment was Mugabe's strategy for a graceful exit from power.

'President Mugabe will be allowed to choose his successor, and go in grace with his tail up,' said Mukundu, arguing that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai would find it impossible to win an election under Zimbabwe's current electoral laws.

But MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa pleaded with critics to give time to South African-led negotiations aimed at brokering a truce between Zimbabwe's deeply-divided political parties.

'This criticism is too rash and unfortunate,' he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in a telephone interview on Thursday.

'The MDC is in a negotation, and the negotiation has to be a give- and-take process,' he said.

He said the journey to a new constitution and a new democratic dispensation in Zimbabwe was a long one.

'People have to give this process time,' he said.

In addition to allowing parliament to choose a successor to Mugabe, the bill also enlarges both houses of parliament and allows presidential and parliamentary elections to be held simultaneously next year.