President Mugabe Acknowledges Defeat In Referendum
February 17, 2000
Rangarirai Shoko
PANA Correspondent
HARARE, Zimbabwe (PANA) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has
acknowledged defeat in a weekend plebiscite on a draft constitution his
government had drawn, and immediately ordered top lieutenants of his
governing party to an urgent meeting to plot an election strategy for
parliamentary polls in April.
In a televised address to the nation Wednesday, he said his government,
which had comfortably won elections since independence in 1980, accepted
defeat, and urged national reconciliation.
"Let us all, winners and losers, accept the referendum verdict and start
planning our way forward," Mugabe, visibly shaken by his first electoral
setback, said.
"The world now knows Zimbabwe as that country where opposing views and
opinions can file so peacefully, both to and from the booth, without
incident. Indeed, this is as it should be and I have every confidence that
the forthcoming general elections will be just as orderly, peaceful and as
dignified," he added.
But the victors, a coalition of opposition parties and human rights groups,
said the government's defeat in the plebiscite showed Zimbabweans had lost
faith in Mugabe and demanded he steps down immediately.
"In a normal democracy, when a sitting government suffers such a defeat, the
honourable thing is to resign. The arrogance of the government does not
help," Morgan Tsvangirai, president of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change party which heavily campaigned against the draft
constitution, said.
The government, which was originally favoured to win, secured 45 percent of
the votes against 55 percent for the opposition, which argued the draft
constitution entrenched Mugabe's overwhelming executive powers allowing him,
among other things, to dissolve cabinet and parliament and rule by decree.
On the other hand, the government said the draft constitution, compiled
after nation-wide consultations with the people, was intended to finally
detach Zimbabwe from the British colonial past by carrying out a complete
surgery on the current supreme law which London imposed on the country at
independence.
But as the political dust began to settle Wednesday, analysts wondered who
the real victor in the plebiscite, Zimbabwe's first as an independent
nation, was in the short to medium term.
The government immediately said parliamentary elections in April would be
conducted under the current constitution, which favours the incumbent
administration.
The rejected draft constitution, which could have taken immediate effect,
offered proportional representation in parliament, as opposed to the current
constituency-based system which gives an electoral advantage to Mugabe.
Opposition parties have always been unable to field candidates in all the
country's 120 constituencies, and political analysts said it was unlikely
any of the parties would be able to do so in the forthcoming parliamentary
elections.
The draft constitution had also provided for an independent electoral body
to replace the existing one the government funds and runs, which the
opposition has repeatedly accused of being impartial in its conduct of
polls.
"In a way, the opposition have disadvantaged themselves because they will
now go into the elections under worse off electoral conditions than was
going to be the case had the new constitution been adopted and put into
effect," a University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer said.
Tsvangirai admitted the political playing field was now much more difficult
for opposition parties, especially in the crucial rural constituencies where
they have to field candidates people did not know.
"It means more hard work ahead," he said.
But political analysts said they were sceptical the opposition parties would
be able to grab a significant portion of the rural vote with less than two
months before elections.
However, stung by the victory of the opposition, Mugabe, who has ruled
Zimbabwe for two decades without interruption, called for a meeting of
senior members of his governing ZANU-PF party Wednesday to map out an
election strategy for the forthcoming polls.
"We now have to re-strategise and re-mobilise the people to fight against
retrogressive forces which want to re-establish white power in Zimbabwe,"
Chen Chimutengwende, the information minister, said.
The government has repeatedly accused the opposition, especially the
labour-backed Movement for Democratic Change party, of being manipulated by
the country's minority whites to block it from pursuing economic programmes
favourable to blacks such as land reform.
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Copyright © 2000 Panafrican News Agency. All Rights Reserved.
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