February 11, 2000
Rangarirai Shoko
PANA Correspondent
HARARE, Zimbabwe (PANA) - Zimbabweans will go to the polls this weekend to vote in a referendum on a new state- sponsored draft constitution for the country.
According to observers, the exercise will be a crucial indication of the political balance of power in the country between the ruling ZANU-PF of Robert Mugabe and the opposition ahead of parliamentary elections in April.
Opposition parties are campaigning against the draft, saying it largely reflected the views of ZANU-PF and it did not offer sufficient safeguards for good governance.
The government, unperturbed by the criticism, has launched an aggressive media blitz for adoption, saying this will strike the final blow to the country's colonial legacy by consigning to history Zimbabwe's current British-drafted supreme law.
"After independence in 1980, we tried to change the Lancaster House constitution (Zimbabwe's current constitution) without success because of the fundamental flaws in that constitution enshrined by the British to protect white settlers," argues the government.
"The people of this country are given an opportunity, which they have been denied for almost a century, to write their own constitution in their own image so that they can right the wrongs of the last 100 years once and for all," it says.
But opposition parties and civil groups, which have banded together under the umbrella group - the National Constitutional Assembly - are campaigning for a "No" vote in the plebiscite, saying the state-produced draft document allows Mugabe to retain much of his existing executive powers, including an exemption from prosecution while in office.
This, they argue, perpetuates what they see as "one- man rule" which is flawed in terms of good governance.
"Zimbabweans called for the drastic reduction of the presidential powers. The draft constitution has retained wide presidential powers and even gives the president new and unchecked powers such as the one to deploy Zimbabwean troops anywhere in the world," says the NCA.
"The president is immune from criminal and civil proceedings during his term of office. The president is above the law and he can place friends above the law," it adds.
Several local and international human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have also joined the opposition in criticising some aspects of the draft constitution, especially its provision for repossession without compensation of white-owned farmland to resettle landless blacks.
The government argues that it has been forced to provide in the constitution for acquisition of the land without compensation because Britain, the former colonial power, has reneged on an earlier agreement to fund the programme.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's government denies British responsibility for financing the programme, and this week issued a formal denial, further angering Mugabe who is using land reform as a trump card in both the referendum and the April elections.
"We have not pleaded with the British to pay compensation. We have said they have a responsibility deriving from colonialism.
"They have that persistent responsibility to compensate us for land that was seized from us without compensation, without a cent or a penny being paid," said Mugabe on the eve of the referendum.
Observers say the plebiscite, Zimbabwe's first as an independent nation, is a test-run of parliamentary elections in two months in which ZANU-PF faces a strong challenge from a new labour-backed party, the Movement for Democratic Change.
"Ostensibly, the referendum is about the draft constitution but in reality it is an opinion poll...," said the weekly Zimbabwe Independent newspaper.
Many analysts concede, however, that the government was likely to win in the referendum, drawing support from its strong rural base. However, efforts at democratising the constitution were likely to continue, they added.
"Even if the draft is adopted, it would only last as long as President Mugabe and ZANU-PF are in power," said political scientist Masipula Sithole of the University of Zimbabwe.