HARARE - Industry and Commerce minister Welshman Ncube’s MDC has accused coalition government principals of sidelining his party and Sadc from the country’s election processes.

The principals, President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy Arthur Mutambara on Tuesday agreed to set up a committee to come up with an election roadmap that takes into consideration the need for voter registration and inspection of the voters’ roll before election dates are proclaimed.

Addressing the media in Harare yesterday, Ncube said his coalition partners had ganged up against Sadc and his party when they assigned Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa and Constitutional Affairs minister Eric Matinenga to draw up the roadmap notwithstanding that there is one authored by the three parties in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) under Sadc’s tutelage.

“It is clear to us that there are insidious repeated efforts by Mugabe and Tsvangirai to re-write the GPA election roadmap by deliberately excluding us and sidelining Sadc,” said Ncube.

“On March 28 we had written to the Sadc troika chair (Jakaya Kikwete) indicating that their Maputo resolutions that the inclusive government must work on an election roadmap are being flouted everyday.

“We briefed the Sadc facilitation team today (yesterday) on these things underlining the contemptuous disregard of Sadc resolutions. We told them that unless they intervene, we will not recognise an election result coming from a process where the GPA has been jettisoned,” Ncube charged.

Turning to election funding by the United Nations, Ncube said the deal was “as dead as a dodo” as the UN would not accept anything short of unfettered access to every stakeholder. - Mugove Tafirenyika