The governing party is also proposing that the transitional period be used to form an independent electoral supervisory commission and to make other electoral amendments acceptable to the opposition. Zimbabwe’s current electoral supervisory bodies have been blamed for favouring ZANU PF and for employing numerous tricks that allowed ZANU PF to steal the vote for Mugabe.
Ruling party insiders this week said they were in favour of breaking the political impasse caused by the disputed March 9-11 presidential poll by amending some sections of the constitution. But opposition sources countered by saying that the MDC would stick to its demands for a fresh presidential election supervised by the United Nations and nothing else.
Official sources said ZANU PF’s proposals dovetailed with Mugabe’s overall plan to hand over power to his favoured man, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the head of the party’s team to the talks. Mugabe’s choice of Mnangagwa to head the crucial talks with the MDC, over more senior party leaders, was also seen as an anointment of the Speaker of Parliament as his eventual successor in ZANU PF and government, the sources said.
Other members of the ZANU PF team to the talks include Frederick Shava, ZANU PF’s director of administration who is Mnangagwa’s right-hand man. Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former intelligence boss, is also being tipped for a vice president’s post in a new Cabinet the ZANU PF leader might announce before the end of the month.
Ruling party insiders this week said they were in favour of breaking the political impasse caused by the disputed March 9-11 presidential poll by amending some sections of the constitution. But opposition sources countered by saying that the MDC would stick to its demands for a fresh presidential election supervised by the United Nations and nothing else.
Official sources said ZANU PF’s proposals dovetailed with Mugabe’s overall plan to hand over power to his favoured man, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the head of the party’s team to the talks. Mugabe’s choice of Mnangagwa to head the crucial talks with the MDC, over more senior party leaders, was also seen as an anointment of the Speaker of Parliament as his eventual successor in ZANU PF and government, the sources said.
Other members of the ZANU PF team to the talks include Frederick Shava, ZANU PF’s director of administration who is Mnangagwa’s right-hand man. Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former intelligence boss, is also being tipped for a vice president’s post in a new Cabinet the ZANU PF leader might announce before the end of the month.