Johannesburg — President Mugabe's governing Zanu-PF party intends to try and reverse its surprise defeat in Parliament on Wednesday after opposition MDC members of parliament successfully voted down a bill, Tuesday, considered a key element in Mugabe's bid to win the presidential election in March.
The government lost the vote 22 to 36. Had it succeeded, the proposed legislation, the first in a series of three new bills, would have barred local independent and foreign election monitors and banned election posters and leaflets lacking approval by the authorities.
The president's party has a parliamentary majority but, after a three week recess, a number of Zanu-PF MPs had failed to return to the house, handing the government its first ever defeat by the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has a minority of seats.
Zimbabwe's Justice Minister has pledged to reintroduce the bill on Wednesday. But the opposition MDC said the move would be 'blatantly illegal' under current parliamentary regulations. because a defeated bill cannot be reintroduced until the next session of parliament, later this year.
Apart from reversing Tuesday's setback, Zanu-PF is hoping to push through two other equally tough and controversial bills on Wednesday. Tightening law and order and controlling the media are at the heart of the remaining legislation.
Observers say failure to force through the other two bills is unlikely. The government will be determined not to trip up a second time.
Critics accuse President Mugabe of trying to further suppress the media - domestic and international - and to grant the security forces sweeping new powers in the lead up to the March presidential poll. The opposition complains that strengthened police authority would seriously curb their efforts to campaign.
Journalists in Zimbabwe predict that the media bill could virtually silence the voice of the independent press. They say they will ignore what they see as draconian legislation which would require local media to obtain government accreditation, renewable each year.
The media have been threatened with jail and fines should they publish news "likely to cause alarm and despondency" in Zimbabwe. The Public Order and Security Bill would make it an offence to criticise the President. Zimbabwean journalist, Basildon Peta, called it a 'fascist piece of legislation...that will completely disable the media for doing its work and will completely suffocate us".
The new bill would also ban foreign correspondents from Zimbabwe. The Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, has repeatedly accused international journalists of lying in their coverage of the situation in Zimbabwe. Andrew Meldrum, a veteran foreign correspondent for Britain's Daily Telegraph, based in the capital, Harare, says; "they don't want a critical press, they don't want a critical overseas press, so they're trying to stop us."
Zimbabwe has been beset by violence and instability during the past two years, with the occupation of white-owned farms and harassment of black farm workers and opposition supporters by government-backed groups calling themselves 'war veterans' of the liberation struggle. The economy has hit rock bottom.
On Tuesday, Moyo declined to talk to the BBC about latest developments, calling its reporting of his country "unethical and unprofessional". Foreign BBC reporters were ordered out of Zimbabwe last year and have not been allowed back in. Few foreign correspondents have been granted work permits.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Britain has indicated that it may press for Zimbabwe's exclusion from the Commonwealth. Speaking in Parliament, Tuesday, the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, said: "If the situation in Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate, Britain will argue for Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in March." (scheduled to be held in Australia).
But Zimbabwean ministers dismissed Straw's comments as an "empty threat". Europe and the United States are also threatening sanctions, citing alarming human rights violations in Zimbabwe and potentially flawed elections occurring without independent observers present.
The Southern Africa Development Community, SADC, is scheduled to meet in Malawi next week for an extraordinary summit to discuss Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
President Mugabe is facing the most credible challenge to his 22 years in office, since Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980.
