Mugabe, Tsvangirai under attack

Mutambara’s unprecedented attack on President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai comes after the two openly called for elections next year.

“Elections next year are unpractical, we first have to come up with a number of reforms to the electoral commission, the media and other institutions.

“They are not confident enough to speak about the national interest, they are just grandstanding,” he charged.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has already said it needs between a year and 18 months to sort out the voters roll, the more reason Mutambara argues elections were impossible next year.

Mutambara said reforms to these institutions were important to avoid a negotiated settlement that saw losers being retained in government. He warned that if this was not heeded, the 2008 situation would be repeated.

“Let us not forget where we are from, the 2008 election was problematic and we risk repeating a vicious circle of fraudulent elections,” he warned.

He said misplaced statements about elections would jeopardise the writing of a new constitution and would raise political tension in the country.

“Elections are about competition and that is not what we want, what we need now is co-operation more than anything,” he advised.

Squabbles among the three main political parties,  MDC, Zanu PF and MDC-T, have dominated the national agenda since the formation of the inclusive government early last year.

Tsvangirai has called for elections to solve the dispute between him and veteran leader Mugabe, while on the other hand Mugabe, also wants elections in the hope that he will defeat Tsvangirai, his long time rival.