Negotiations on power-sharing to end Zimbabwe’s political crisis may be endangered if President Robert Mugabe unilaterally convenes the new Parliament early next week, analysts said.
“The implication of reconvening Parliament is that Mugabe is exercising his executive powers, but this might have negative implications on talks,” said Takura Zhangazha, director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa.
Zimbabwe’s parliamentary clerk, Austin Zvoma, said that newly-elected MPs would be sworn in on Monday, and Mugabe would formally open Parliament — comprising 93 members in the senate and 210 in the lower house — on Tuesday.
“If Mugabe goes ahead to convene the Parliament, it means that he has assumed certain powers to himself which have not be negotiated or agreed upon at the talks,” said Ivor Jenkins, director of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa.
“It will be a violation of the agreement between the parties and make his action illegal,” he said.
“Unilaterally convening the Parliament means that the critical issue of who controls power in Zimbabwe has not been resolved. This puts everything at a standstill.”
Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party led by Morgan Tsvangirai said Thursday it will attend the swearing in of new MPs but it is opposed the convening of Parliament.
Tsvangirai said that any parliamentary session would be “a violation, repudiation of some of the conditions on the memorandum of understanding (MOU)” signed with Mugabe on July 21 in Harare on power-sharing talks.
“President Mugabe would not proceed to do anything unilaterally. Any step that we take has to be by consensus,” he told reporters in Nairobi on Thursday, where he came to seek advice on the workings of a power-sharing government.
“We are going to Parliament to defend our mandate. Our problem is with the convening of Parliament not the swearing in of members,” MDC secretary general Tendai Biti also said in Johannesburg.
The MDC had said reconvening Parliament without mutual agreement by parties after controversial elections could scuttle talks to resolve the country’s devastating political crisis.
“If you convene Parliament, you are closing the door to negotiations … means they have no regard for the MOU and not interesting in talking anymore,” Biti said.
Mugabe’s party suffered a historic defeat in legislative elections in March. The veteran leader was re-elected in a June one-man presidential run-off boycotted by Tsvangirai, who had defeated him in the first round.
“If Mugabe convenes parliament and the MDC does not attend there will be a political crisis,” said Harare-based constitutional law expert Lovemore Madhuku.
“A case can me made that Mugabe breached the terms of the memorandum of understanding,” he said, but added that “If the MDC attends, they would have condoned the breach and the breach would have been rectified.”
The memorandum of understanding — which paved the way for power-sharing talks — was signed by Mugabe and the two factions of the MDC before South African President and mediator, Thabo Mbeki.
Edwin Mushoriwa, a spokesperson of the smaller MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara, said its elected MPs would not boycott the oath-taking on Monday.
Negotiations on power-sharing were suspended last week, and both opposition and the South African mediators have said they did not know when they will resume.
“If Mugabe proceeds to open the Parliament on Tuesday when the talks have not been concluded, it will be interpreted as a violation of the MOU,” said Chris Landsberg, director of South Africa’s Centre for Political Studies.
“But the focus now should not be on Mugabe’s action but on why the parties cannot agree on the key issue of power-sharing.” – AFP