HARARE -- President Robert Mugabe will officially open Zimbabwe’s Parliament tomorrow, with the veteran leader expected to use the occasion to outline the agenda for the remainder the year for his coalition government with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The third session of the seventh Parliament comes at time when the Harare coalition is in the midst of consulting the public on the drafting of a new constitution that should pave way for fresh elections to choose a new government.

“His Excellency the President, Robert Mugabe will officially open the Third Session of the Seventh Parliament on Tuesday,” Parliament said in a statement at the weekend.

Under the power sharing deal, a new constitution was supposed to be completed this year, but lack of funding and squabbling between Mugabe’s ZANU PF party and Tsvangirai’s MDC over what form constitutional reforms should take has delayed the process by over six months.

Zimbabwe’s present Constitution was drafted by former colonial power Britain at Lancaster House, a year before granting of independence in 1980. 

The Lancaster House Constitution has been amended 19 times with critics saying most of the changes have been to entrench Mugabe’s three-decade grip on power.

The Constitution was last amended before controversial elections in 2008 which saw ZANU PF losing its parliamentary majority for the first since independence, while Mugabe lost a parallel presidential ballot to Tsvangirai.

However the former opposition leader failed to garner enough votes to avoid a second round run-off poll, eventually won by Mugabe uncontested after Tsvangirai withdrew from the race citing government-sponsored attacks against his supporters.

While public consultations on the proposed new charter have started across the country they are yet to begin in the capital and the second city of Bulawayo, with the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) leading the reforms saying the outreach exercise was postponed in the major cities because of the World Cup tournament that ended in neighbouring South Africa yesterday 

“We did not want to have a counter programmes, since initially some most the games were being played in the afternoon we thought this could result in the sessions not being attended,” COPAC co-chair person Paul Mangwana said.

“Now that the World cup is over our teams will be in areas such as Kuwadzana, Mufakose, Kambuzuma (all suburbs in Harare) but no dates have been set as yet as to when they would begin,” he said.

Meanwhile, Parliament has also announced that Finance Minister Tendai Biti will present his mid-term statement to the House on Wednesday.

By Zimonline