HARARE – The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) says Zimbabwe should draw important lessons from Kenya’s peaceful and orderly constitution-making process which culminated in this month’s referendum that passed the country’s new charter.

ZESN said the Constitution Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) and Zimbabwe’s leadership should emulate the Kenyan experience in terms of administrative arrangements and political commitment to seeing a transparent and smooth process leading to the drafting of the new charter and the accompanying referendum. “There was a strong political will to follow the provisions of the legal framework that had been put in place for the review process.

ZESN noted that all stakeholders were consulted in all processes,” said the group of Zimbabwean election observers which sent a team to monitor Kenya’s August 4 referendum. It called for constant dialogue and collaboration between COPAC, civic society and the media to ensure the process is open to scrutiny. Citing the case of Kenya where civil society groups set up violence early warning systems, ZESN said cooperation among all stakeholders would significantly reduce incidents of violence and intimidation experienced during the ongoing exercise to gather public views on the proposed constitution.

Cases of politically motivated violence and intimidation have escalated since June when the country embarked on an outreach programme to draft a new “people-driven” constitution. The MDC-T led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says assaults on its officials and supporters have intensified across the country in the past two months. The party accused President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) of activating the same machinery used during past elections to intimidate opposition officials and supporters.
The machinery includes soldiers, Central Intelligence Organisation operatives, the police, traditional chiefs, the youth militia and
local thugs who are paid for each assignment.

By The Zimbabwean