Zimbabwe's MPs elect opposition candidate as speaker

The candidate for Zimbabwe’s main opposition party was given the top job in parliament today after MPs were sworn in some five months after they were elected.

The surprise election of Lovemore Moyo of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as speaker is the first time the role has not been held by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF since independence.

The victory could be a bargaining chip in deadlocked power-sharing talks.

The election came as two opposition MPs were arrested as they arrived to be sworn in to parliament, part of a continuing campaign of intimidation and harassment by beleaguered Mr Mugabe.

The election of Mr Moyo brought cheers from the opposition, and MPs broke into an electoral song declaring the governing “Zanu-PF is finished!”

Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party had held a parliamentary majority since it won power at Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. It had been expected to win today’s speaker election, but did not put up a candidate because “the figures were against us,” according to Zanu-PF MP Walter Mzemdi.

He said Zanu-PF MPs were instructed to vote for Paul Themba-Nyathi, a leader from the splinter opposition faction.

Mr Moyo won the top position in parliament by 110 votes to 98. Distribution of votes in the secret ballot showed he apparently got votes from both Mugabe’s party and the splinter opposition faction.

He promised to “work towards a professional parliament that will represent the true wishes of the people of Zimbabwe.”

If the opposition continues to win support from the splinter faction, it would have the simple majority needed in parliament to cripple Mr Mugabe by blocking funds for government ministries and projects.

Without that support, the two main parties could be deadlocked since opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s party has 100 seats in the 210-seat legislature, Mr Mugabe’s won 99 and the splinter faction has 10. An independent who broke away from Mr Mugabe’s party has the remaining seat.

If there were a deadlock, Mr Mugabe retains power to dissolve the assembly and rule through emergency regulations by presidential decree.

Analysts agree that the opposition could not summon the two-thirds of votes needed to impeach Mr Mugabe.

Mr Tsvangirai’s party charged last week that Mr Mugabe’s party was trying to buy its MPs’ votes in the contest for speaker.

Mr Mugabe is to open parliament officially today, breaking an agreement he signed last month with Mr Tsvangirai that the assembly would not sit unless both men agreed or until a power-sharing deal was struck.

Analyst Simandla Zondi said today’s victory marks “the beginning of power-sharing not by consensus but by issue of the electoral weight” of the opposition party.

“It gives them a significant amount of power to build the legislative assembly into a strong force for accountability, one which is really going to force the executive (Mugabe) to find a way to work with a parliament which may be led by hostile forces,” said Mr Zondi, of South Africa’s Institute for Global Dialogue.

Mr Mugabe had turned the parliament into a rubber-stamp body.

Although the parliament – not the speaker – approves the government budget, the speaker presides over debate, controls parliament’s schedule, and approves chairmanship appointments to powerful parliamentary committees.

Today’s victory also could give the opposition leverage in the power-sharing talks, Mr Zondi said.

Shortly before the election of speaker, two opposition MPs were arrested. Sure Mudiwa was held only briefly and later was among 208 of 210 MPs sworn in. But the second arrested, Elia Jembere, did not reappear.

Mr Jembere is among seven opposition activists police want for alleged involvement in election violence. Independent human rights groups say Mr Mugabe’s forces are responsible for most violence.

An opposition statement said police also tried to arrest a third member of parliament, who is a negotiator at the power-sharing talks, but he “was rescued” by fellow MPs.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said he was unaware of today’s arrests, and added “it would be illegal for anyone to be arrested while they were proceeding to parliament.”

Opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the arrests were politically motivated, an attempt by Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party to regain control of parliament.

“Zanu-PF are in a desperate attempt to try and stop or abort our victory,” Mr Chamisa said. “It’s a struggle. We have to fight it out.”

The arrests and a government announcement today that Mr Mugabe had appointed loyalists to several posts as senators and governors are likely to fuel opposition charges that Mr Mugabe is undermining the stalled negotiations.

Leaked documents from the talks show Mr Tsvangirai balked at signing a deal making him prime minister with limited powers and answerable to Mr Mugabe, who would remain president with virtually all his powers intact.

Mr Tsvangirai beat Mr Mugabe and two other candidates in presidential elections held alongside parliamentary elections, but did not gain the simple majority of votes needed to avoid a run-off.

Mr Mugabe held a one-man run-off and declared himself victor despite international condemnation.

Mr Mugabe’s corrupt policy of violently seizing white-owned commercial farmland to turn it over to blacks destroyed the country’s economic base and turned one of Africa’s rare economic success stories into a disaster.