Plot to dislodge Speaker thickens
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=3841#more-3841
September 11, 2008
By Our Correspondent
THE MDC's control of Parliament stands doubtful in the face of a
constitutional court challenge against the election of its national
chairman to the post of Speaker of Parliament.The plans for a legal
challenge on the election of mainstream MDC national chairman Lovemore
Moyo as Speaker have been set down by the Legal Affairs committee of
the Arthur Mutambara-led MDC working in collaboration with Professor
Jonathan Moyo.
Lovemore Moyo was elected Speaker by a surprising 110 votes to the 98
clinched by the Mutambara MDC's candidate, Paul Themba-Nyathi,
following a surprise change in allegiance on the part of the 10 MPs
representing the breakaway faction of the MDC.
The distribution of the votes left little doubt that legislators of the
Mutambara camp had gone against their party and voted for the candidate
of the rival MDC party led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Zanu-PF had
strategically refrained from fielding a candidate while ordering its
legislators to vote for the Mutambara faction's candidate, Nyathi. A
combination of the Zanu-PF MPs and those of the Mutambara faction would
have delivered the required mortal blow on the mainstream MDC
candidate.
The tables were turned on Mutambara, however, when his MPs betrayed him
and aligned themselves with Tsvangirai by voting for Moyo. Zanu-PF and
the Mutambara faction have been fuming since then and the proposed
court challenge seeks to reverse the victory of the mainstream MDC and
the newly elected Speaker.
The legal challenge, mooted at the Kadoma Ranch Motel during a
so-called strategy workshop of the Mutambara faction last weekend is
being finalised amid advanced negotiations between the three political
parties in Harare to create a power-sharing arrangement. The
independent MP for Tsholotsho, Prof Jonathan Moyo, who by all
indications has now returned to the Zanu-PF fold, checked into the
motel for the duration of the workshop, sources say.
The sources informed The Zimbabwe Times that the faction's Legal
Affairs committee chairman, David Coltart, was asked during the
workshop if he believed the election of Lovemore Moyo was
constitutional. He re****tedly slammed the election as a sham and said
it had been inconsistent with normal procedure.
In a long and winding statement issued Tuesday, Coltart said the
insistence that mainstream MDC MPs show their ballot to the party's
vice president Thokozani Khupe prior to voting for the Speaker was not
only unlawful, but it also ran against one of the fundamental tenets of
democratic parliamentary practice.
Re****ts also suggest Mutambara MPs had shown their ballot papers to
mainstream MDC chief whip, Innocent Gonese, to assure him they had had
protested against Mutambara and voted for Lovemore Moyo.
Prof Moyo is alleged to have suggested during a session of the workshop
that a legal challenge be immediately mounted against the election of
Lovemore Moyo, saying the election process on August 25 had flouted
parliamentary standing orders and was, therefore unlawful.
Prof Moyo, who could not immediately be reached for comment, is said to
have suggested that the faction stood a good chance of winning the
legal challenge because it had the blessing of Zanu-PF. The two Moyo's
are apparently unrelated. They, however, both come from the western
regions of Zimbabwe, as do the rest of the players in the unfolding
drama, except for Mutambara.
"Prof Moyo even suggested that there could be arrangements to assign
the case to judge(s) with official instruction to nullify the
election," said our source.
He had pointed out that Article 5 of the Standing Orders would be used
as a basis for legal challenge before Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court.
Coltart, in his Tuesday statement which provided the first hint that
court case was looming, said: "In short the election of Lovemore Moyo
was illegal, could be set aside by a court and establishes an
unacceptable standard of behaviour for the new Parliament."
The source said the legal firm of Coghlan and Welsh was likely to be
briefed to handle the case.
Sources say the stakes were high as Prof Moyo and Mutambara and his top
deputies had been promised key appointments in a new Mugabe government,
if they could use their legal expertise to install Nyathi in the
coveted Speaker's chair.
Prof Moyo had been promised the Information and Publicity ****tfolio.
Mutambara, who lost the parliamentary election in Zengeza West during
the March elections, was tipped for appointment as non-constituent
senator and thereafter to Cabinet as Minister responsible for Science
and Technology. Under Zimbabwean law, all Cabinet ministers are
required to be members of Zimbabwe's bi-cameral Parliament.
Mutambara is a robotics professor who has worked for top US aeronautics
firm, NASA.
The secretary general of the faction, Welshman Ncube, who lost his
parliamentary seat in Bulawayo, was also earmarked for appointment as
non-constituent Senator as a stepping stone to the post of Minister of
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs in the new Cabinet.
Ncube is a law professor.
The deputy secretary-general of the faction, Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga had re****tedly been promised the post of
ambassador of Zimbabwe in London. The deal also involved two
gubernatorial posts for the Mutambara MDC - re****ted to have been
earmarked for agriculture secretary Renson Gasela and national chairman
Joubert Mudzumwe in the Midlands and Masvingo respectively.
The Zimbabwe Times yesterday heard that Zanu PF has kept the carrot of
Cabinet posts for the Mutambara faction dangling as long they can
reverse the election of Lovemore Moyo.
Mugabe and his Zanu-PF deputies were said to be desperate that Nyathi
becomes Speaker by any means possible - a crucial post that gives the
in***bent powers to draft the House's schedule and also appoint
committee chairmen. The plot for the removal of Moyo envisages the
election of Joram Gumbo -the Zanu-PF chief whip - to the position of
Deputy Speaker.
"Even now they are determined that they repossess the Speaker's chair,"
said a source.
The mainstream MDC yesterday issued a statement saying it was horrified
by the plot. The MDC accused Zanu-PF and Prof Moyo of trying to reverse
the people's will in Parliament by claiming that the voting process was
not transparent.
"The MDC would like to make it clear that the MPs' vote for Hon. Moyo
was a true reflection of the will of the people of Zimbabwe," said the
statement. "It represents a triumph for democracy, which has shocked
the deadwood in Zanu-PF. The election of Hon Moyo as Speaker of
Parliament remains a historic occasion, which cannot be reversed by the
losers, regardless of whatever machinations they can concoct to reverse
the people's will."
Considering the high stakes and apparent determination on the other
side, merely expressing horror might not be sufficient for the
mainstream MDC to retain Lovemore Moyo in the Speaker's chair in
Parliament.
|
