It is only too easy to argue that Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) did the right thing in deciding last week to suspend any further participation in polls until President Robert Mugabe’s government adheres to the electoral standards laid down by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state in Mauritius last month. It is more difficult to say the party did the wrong thing. But it is beginning to look like that.
The MDC was right in claiming that any future election would place it at an unfair disadvantage given Zanu-PF’s refusal to do anything more than submit to pressure from the SADC leaders for technical reforms in the conduct of polls. While those reforms, providing for independent electoral institutions, non-discriminatory voter registration, and accessible voters’ rolls, among other things, will do much to improve the electoral process in Zimbabwe, they don’t address the wider context.
Mauritian Prime Minister Paul Berenger spelt that out when he said ”really free and fair elections mean not only an independent electoral commission, but also include freedom of assembly and absence of physical harassment by the police or any other entity, freedom of the press and access to national radio and television, and external and credible observation of the whole electoral process”.
The MDC will argue that none of those broader, but essential, requirements are in place. More to the point, Zanu-PF appears to have no intention of putting them there.
Even before the ink was dry on the Grande Baie protocol, Zimbabwean ministers were planning new ways of closing democratic space by further restricting freedom of expression and association ahead of a general election scheduled for March.
A proposed NGO Bill plans to do to civil society what Mugabe’s media law did to the press — muzzle it.
Both the SADC and the African Union share a commitment to popular participation in the political process. But voters cannot make an informed choice if they are denied access to competing views or don’t know what their rights are. NGOs perform a vital public service as electoral monitors and in telling voters what rights they have. Now they will be closed down if they are foreign-funded, leaving the electoral terrain wide open to Mugabe’s blandishments — and his militias.
The SADC principles require equal access to the media for contesting parties. Far from tolerating dissent, Zimbabwe’s public media pour forth a daily diet of calumnies and hate speech directed at the opposition and civil society.
Partisan policing and a judiciary subject to constant threats make for a toxic political climate that is designed to discourage people from exercising their rights.
It is, therefore, understandable that the MDC should wish to draw a line in the sand, refusing to provide a veneer of legitimacy to the ruling party’s electoral chicanery. But the timing is terrible.
Whatever we might say about the reluctance of SADC leaders to make a stand against misrule in Zimbabwe, the fact is they have now succumbed to patient prodding from President Thabo Mbeki and set down benchmarks on electoral reform that are unambiguous.
What was required was for the MDC to test the water. It should have used Parliament to showcase the government’s recidivism over the NGO Bill. And then explained to the country and the region the implications of stunted electoral education and monitoring as Zanu-PF’s militias move into action.
It should have applied for access to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and monitored professional standards in the broadcaster’s coverage well ahead of the March poll.
It should have seen who Mugabe appoints as head of the new electoral commission.
This was an ideal opportunity to test the government’s sincerity against the SADC electoral principles, step by step. Each new travesty could be documented — but only if the MDC waved a yellow card.
As it is, SADC heads will feel their efforts were ill-rewarded. But worse, they now have the perfect excuse to nod through the March election outcome, however un-free or unfair.
The MDC has let them off the hook just as they were showing a hint of firmness. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s assurance to his followers this week that ”the political electric fence that denied you access to the watermelon has rusted away” may prove a tad optimistic.
If the MDC decides to re-engage early next year when SADC leaders might secure a political opening ahead of the March poll, it could well be too late to make a difference.
Iden Wetherell is group projects editor of the Zimbabwe Independent and Standard newspapers