The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) has begun a rural outreach programme to campaign for a boycott of parliamentary elections set for March next year, the organisation has said. Earnest Mudzengi, the NCA information and advocacy officer told the Daily News Online yesterday that the coalition group wanted the public to boycott next year™s legislative polls unless the government made “meaningful” and sweeping changes to the constitution. Mudzengi said the campaign kicked off in Manicaland and had also covered Gutu, Zaka, Chiredzi and Chivi in Masvingo province over the past month. “The rural areas are our primary target because this is where Zanu PF has sought to entrench itself. We want both the urban and rural population to form the critical mass from where the NCA will derive power to make sure that the elections do not proceed under the current electoral set up and constitution,” said Mudzengi. The NCA, a coalition of civic groups, churches and the student movement fighting for a new constitution, says the current constitution is flawed and gives an unfair electoral advantage to the incumbent government over the opposition.

President Robert Mugabe has however, said that the government would introduce reforms to the electoral process before next year™s elections. According to reports, the reforms would include the setting up of an electoral commission to take over the running of elections from the registrar-general. But the opposition and civic groups have dismissed the proposed reforms as a window dresser, arguing that Mugabe could still manipulate the electoral body since he would appoint members of the commission. “The changes proposed by Mugabe are cosmetic. They do not go far enough in addressing the flawed electoral process. We need a genuinely independent commission, an environment that makes it possible for other candidates to campaign freely without intimidation and harassment and above all, a democratic constitution,” said Mudzengi. Movement for Democratic Change President (MDC) Morgan Tsvangirai last week accused state security agents of banning MDC rallies in several rural constituencies. Tsvangirai said the move was meant to sabotage the opposition™s election campaign.

If the government failed to make these reforms, Mudzengi said, the NCA would ensure that the elections would not take place. “We will employ various strategies and there are a number that we are mulling at the moment. Boycotting the election is just one option. People can disturb the whole purpose by deliberately spoiling ballot papers or just disrupt the whole process so that it does not even take place. “But it will be a matter of strategy. That is why we have stepped up our campaign because we want to convince as many people as possible. We want to have reached all villages and wards by election time and our structures are working hard on that. We should have reached saturation levels by the March,™ said Mudzengi.

Source: WWW.ZwNews.Com