US embassy cable - 04HARARE1520

UNCLAS HARARE 001520 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR BNEULING 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVELLE, D. TEITELBAUM 
PARIS FOR C. NEARY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PREL, ZI, ZANU-PF 
SUBJECT: ZANU-PF WINS SEKE BY-ELECTION THE EASY WAY -- 
UNOPPOSED 
 
REF: A. HARARE 1444 
 
     B. HARARE 1429 
 
1. (U) ZANU-PF candidate Phineas Chihota was declared the 
winner of the Seke parliamentary by-election on September 3 
when no other candidate filed for the seat by that day,s 
deadline.  The seat had become vacant following the death of 
MDC MP Bennie Tumbare-Mutasa in July.  ZANU-PF now has 67 
seats in parliament, bringing it to within two seats of the 
two-thirds majority needed to enact constitutional 
amendments.  No election has as yet been scheduled to fill 
the seat of the recently deceased ZANU-PF MP Eddison Zvobgo 
(ref A), a seat ZANU-PF is certain to hold. 
 
2. (U) The official Herald newspaper reported on September 8 
that the government adopted the draft Zimbabwe Electoral 
Commission Bill and plans to gazette it soon.  The MDC 
continues to maintain that the draft bill does not meet its 
requirements for electoral reform (ref B). 
 
3. (SBU) COMMENT: This is the first election the MDC has sat 
out since declaring it would boycott elections unless 
electoral imbalances are addressed.  This no doubt seemed to 
the MDC a low-risk implementation of the policy, since it was 
not likely an MDC candidate would have won the by-election. 
However, the failure of MDC to put up a candidate has given 
the government added material for its rhetoric to domestic 
and regional audiences that MDC is a spent force afraid even 
to contest elections.  More worrisomely, it may also give the 
ruling party an opening to both criticize the MDC for 
inconsistency should it later choose to contest elections, 
including especially the general election in the spring, and 
to claim that by participating the MDC has endorsed the 
fairness of the election.  Rather than putting pressure on 
the ZANU-PF, the MDC may have painted itself into a corner. 
END COMMENT. 
Dell