Elections in 2012: Is this possible under the current political and socio-economic environment in Zimbabwe?

The following is a brief summary of the outcome of a Youth Think Tank convened by the NYDT to discuss young people’s views on the feasibility of holding general elections this year.  

Context

The debate on elections has been tossed across two main political parties with each political party creating media hype on when Zimbabwe will be best suited for elections. One of the proposals underlined by the Zimbabwe African National Party-Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) is that the elections will be held this year ‘with or without a new constitution’. The party argues that the collapse of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) is long overdue and as such, President Robert Mugabe should use the powers accorded to him through the Lancaster House Constitution to call for the elections immediately. On the other hand, the Movement for Democratic Change led by Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai has indicated that elections will only be conducted in March 2013.

Given the fact that elections in general tend to affect the youths in Zimbabwe by turning youths into susceptible tools for political machinations, the National Youth Development Trust (NYDT) conducted a youth think tank meeting meant to get the views from young people on their view regarding the elections in Zimbabwe.

The general consensus from youths was that holding elections in 2012 is impractical and suicidal for the nation and democratic principles in Zimbabwe. The nation judging from the financial budget of 2012, hopes to conduct a census which for now has a deficit of nearly 15 million dollars. Therefore any attempt in conducting a financially taxing exercise like elections presents yet another economic challenge to Zimbabwe.

Recommendations

The youths underlined that there is no need for the nation to rush into elections, instead immense focus should be focused on promoting and ensuring a conducive environment for the strengthening of democracy.  Therefore all parties should work immensely to ensure that the pending issues in the Global Political Agreement are dealt with.  A case in point is the issue of the constitution making process that should be dealt with as it presents a positive progression to democracy.

The issue of electoral reforms should also be solved as it has a potential of ensuring that elections are held in a free and fair manner. The electoral reforms should indicate the limitation of the powers of the presidium in nominating commissioners as this tends to indirectly influence the election process and somehow paint a picture of skewed election process.

Additionally, the issues of security reform and press freedom should be interrogated at length as they are critical in promoting democracy in Zimbabwe. This will also reduce the culture of fear which has so much engulfed the people of Zimbabwe whenever there is talk of elections.