In Zimbabwe, not enough money for elections

Zimbabwe’s electoral commission is not able to conduct the country’s elections this year unless it gets a cash injection from the government, a state-owned weekly newspaper reported Sunday.

The commission was only given $8.5 million by the country’s treasury, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Chairman Simpson Mutambanengwe said, according to the Sunday Mail. “We’re barely surviving. There is no money.”

Earlier this month, representatives of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party agreed that it would not be possible to have elections this year.

But last week, Mugabe’s party called for general elections this year to end the country’s two-year-old coalition government.

Mugabe has repeatedly called for elections to take place this year.

Tsvangirai has said elections must be held only after democratic reforms, including having a new constitution in Zimbabwe are completed.

Under the power sharing agreement that Tsvangirai and Mugabe signed in 2008, Zimbabwe is supposed to have a new constitution before general elections are held.

Drafting a new constitution has been marred by lack of funds, interparty violence and disagreements between Mugabe’s and Tsvangirai’s parties. As a result, a referendum on the new constitution that was supposed to have been held last November was set for September of this year.

But with the election commission indicating that it has no money to run polls, the date might be pushed further.

Mugabe, a guerrilla leader who was hailed as a hero of Zimbabwe’s freedom struggle when he came to power three decades ago, has established himself over the years as one of Africa’s most ruthless dictators. However, his power has weakened as evidenced in the 2008 election.

Tsvangirai won that vote, but Mugabe refused to cede power. He agreed to form a unity government with Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara after African regional leaders refused to recognize the legitimacy of a runoff.

Source: CNN