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Zimbabwe: Political rhetoric heats up as July 31 general election approaches
(AFP) – Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said Sunday he was launching his election campaign despite worries that the poll is taking place before all democratic reforms can be completed.Zimbabweans go to the polls in just over three weeks to end the unity government between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, who were forced to share power after the 2008 elections.
“We participate with a heavy heart,” 61-year-old Tsvangirai told over 10,000 supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Sunday.
He said he had read “the national mood” felt by ordinary Zimbabweans to end years of suffering in a political and economic crisis created by the incumbent Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.
Tsvangirai said Zimbabweans are eager to vote Mugabe out of power, however the MDC’s support has flagged after a poor show over four years in the power-sharing government.
But his party had “tried our best… against serious resistance”, he told a stadium in Marondera, a party stronghold 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Harare.
His supporters were upbeat, thrusting their open palms — which the MDC uses as its symbol — in the air and waving party and country flags in the national colours of green, yellow, red, and black.
Mugabe, in power for 33 years, issued a fiery rallying call to around 20,000 supporters on Friday when he launched his campaign. Earlier, he had threatened to leave regional bloc the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which had pressured him to postpone the polls.
However, Tsvangirai said Mugabe had no power to withdraw from the 15-member bloc, which the country depends on heavily for aid. “Whatever his station, he has no right to pull Zimbabwe out unilaterally without consultation,” said Tsvangirai.
Mugabe declared early elections for July 31 which the Constitutional Court on Thursday upheld. Tsvangirai had called for a three-month delay to allow for a series of reforms that would limit the military’s role in politics and strip ghost voters from the electoral roll.
Earlier this year – in March, the people of Zimbabwe approved in a referendum a new constitution that limits presidential powers. Under the charter Mugabe could serve another two five-year terms.
Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party faces an uphill struggle to win over voters, many of whom are disgruntled at the poor state of the economy that has forced millions of Zimbabweans to emigrate to neighboring countries. His rival vowed Sunday to fix rampant unemployment if he won the poll.
“The biggest challenge is how to create jobs for millions of young educated Zimbabweans,” said Tsvangirai. “I have no doubt if you give us the mandate we can turn around this country in a positive direction.” “A new Zimbabwe is just a vote away,” he added.
New polls were supposed to have been held 18 months after the formation of the power-sharing government in 2009 but were delayed by frequent disagreements over electoral reforms.