Johannesburg — Booing and jeering among rival members of parliament in Zimbabwe accompanied the passing of two of three controversial pieces of legislation Thursday, which the opposition claims will severely restrict their actions and pre-election campaigning, two months before the presidential poll scheduled in March.
"They are doing all they can to deny us access to the electorate. It will be very difficult for us to operate," said Welshman Ncube the secretary-general of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The government says the laws are necessary to maintain law and order before the preseidential election in Zimbabwe. Observers say the measures are part of President Robert Mugabe's strategy to win the 9-10 March poll.
Mugabe's governing Zanu-PF party was determined to force through the electoral and security bills and, with its comfortable 93-150 majority in parliament, was able to do so.
On Tuesday, with many Zanu-PF MPs missing from the house for its first sitting of the year, the government initially suffered a defeat and failed to get the General Laws Amendment Bill passed. But the Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, vowed he would revive the rejected amendments and Zanu-PF suspended parliamentary procedures at Thursday's session to do so.
The opposition has accused the government of subverting parliamentary procedure. Normally a defeated bill must be amended and wait six months before being represented.
After the government party won the vote to reintroduce the rejected electoral modifications, opposition MPs were seen to kneel down in a circle on the floor of parliament and pray, with their arms held up in the open-handed salute of the MDC.
This new bill will ban independent electoral monitors in the March presidential poll and disenfranchise Zimbabwean voters abroad. The Justice Minister said election observers would come to Zimbabwe "by invitation and not by imposition".
Meanwhile, the Public Order and Security Bill, which was also pushed through Thursday, grants sweeping new security powers to the government. It also outlaws criticism of the president as well as "insurgency, banditry, sabotage and terrorism" crimes which carry the death penalty. Those who 'undermine the authority of the president or 'engender hostility' towards him face hefty fines or imprisonment.
The new legislation was immediately denounced by the opposition MDC which said it would appeal the decision. "We are going to challenge this package of fascist rules in the courts. They are trying to clothe fascism with this whole set of bills," Tendai Biti, the shadow foreign minister of the MDC, told reporters outside parliament.
Parliament was adjourned until Tuesday, when the government in Zimbabwe hopes similarly to fast track a comprehensive law restricting the media, The Access to Information and Privacy Bill. Tight controls would affect both local journalists and foreign correspondents, few of whom currently are being allowed into Zimbabwe to report.
These broad new measures have increased international condemnation of Zimbabwe and President Mugabe. The European Union and the United States are considering sanctions. Britain and Canada may press for Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth at the heads of government meeting in Australia in March, just before the Zimbabwean president stands for reelection.
But Mugabe remains defiant, calling some of his critics enemies of the liberation struggle (against minority white rule) and his political opponents puppets of white Zimbabweans and of Britain, the former colonial power.
On Wednesday, shortly before the election dates were announced, Zimbabwe's military commanders proclaimed that they would only support a leader who had been part of the war of liberation in the 1970s (for independence).
This is being seen as a stark warning that an opposition electoral victory, or a government led by the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, would not be tolerated by the army. Observers say it is a tactic to intimidate both Mugabe's political opponents and the voters.
But it remains unclear whether the commander of the armed forces, General Vitalis Zvinavashe, who made the statement, can deliver on that threat and whether he has the support of all elements in the security forces.
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Speaking in Johannesburg, in neighbouring South Africa Thursday, en route back to Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai described the military declaration as a 'de facto coup' which was "mischievous, irresponsible and treacherous".
London has been especially vocal in its condemnation of the authorities in Zimbabwe, calling for an end to political violence and violation of human rights before the presidential election. Britain's International Development Secretary, Clare Short, described the current situation in Zimbabwe as a 'tragedy of enormous proportions'.
Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, has seen his popularity wane as Zimbabweans face economic hardship, with shortages of fuel and staple foods. The seizure of white-owned farms by the government-backed 'war veterans' has led to insecurity and has contributed to the collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar and the economy.
The government says it must rectify lingering imbalances from the colonial past, by redistributing land to landless black Zimbabweans.
