Tsvangirai Regrets "NO" Vote Campaign In 2000

In his autobiography, At the Deep End— Tsvangirai had the “NO”campaign been not carried this could have saved Zimbabwe ten years of political strife. The National Constitutional Assembly and other Non Governmental Organisations campaigned for voters to reject the new constitution saying it had been tampered with and that it was not reflecting the will of the people.

“My analysis of this is that if we had accepted that draftconstitution and kept cool heads, Mugabe would have been out of power within a much shorter time,” Tsvangirai said.

“ I totally believe this. We could have saved ourselves ten years of political chaos, economic havoc and hazardous struggle to achieved democracy. Within a short space of time, circumstances  would have forced Mugabe to accept what SADC and Zimbabweans finally pushed him to do after losing the presidential election in March 2008. He would have worked out an exit strategy fairly early on.”

He said all indications showed that Mugabe was already tired; he had lost control of ZANU-PF and had limited options.

“If we had accepted the draft, chances were that could had election in March or April 2000 and would have avoided the blood-letting with which we were doomed to live for a long time to come….We could have achieved the transfer of power in a much more clear-cut and orderly fashion that what we eventually had to go through on the way to compromise of the Government of National Unity. “

Mugabe and Tsvangirai entered into a coalition agreement in February 2009 in a deal that was brokered by SADC and mediated by former South African President Thabo Mbeki. The coalition government is working on drafting a new constitution, with the referendum expected to be done early next year.