Mugabe may be ready for it. Makoni may be all for it. But there are some who say it's just not on.
One of the few joys in life today - and there aren't that many in modern Zimbabwe - is the availability of good reading matter. Whenever I run out of a decent book or newspaper, I know that sooner or later someone high in public office will sneakily hand me a secret memo, from which I will derive hours of reading pleasure.
The latest missive to land in my hands emanates from the depths of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). It is marked "For Urgent Attention and Extremely Confidential", its correct destination is the Ministry for Home Affairs, and its contents carry what I can only describe as an election bombshell.
Because the ZEC is telling the government, in no uncertain terms, that there is no way in which the harmonized elections in March can take place. It is a practical impossibility, it says. And it goes into graphic details.
It opens plainly enough. "As ZEC, it is our firm contention that holding elections in March would not be feasible under the prevailing circumstances. The commission is faced with a litany of challenges and postponing to June would be ideal."
The first problem, apparently, is the provsion of translucent ballot boxes. Last time round, in 2005, the country bought 50,000 such boxes from China. That was for simple parliamentary elections. For harmonized elections - presidential, parliamentary and senatorial - the country needs 300,000 boxes.
What's more, most of the boxes bought in 2005 are now either stolen or, the document says, "not fit to be used in any election that seeks to be credible."
Then there's a problem with ink, which is used to mark those who vote. Apparently the ZEC has been frantically (their word) trying to buy ink in Switzerland, but those canny Swiss want the money (some US$950,000) up front.
In a masterly understatement, the ZEC says that is an amount that could be "difficult to raise", and it wonders whether ink might alternatively be bought in China. Presumably by selling yet another chunk of the nation to Beijing.
Another problem. Electricity. With powercuts now so frequent, lengthy and widespread, the ZEC say they will have to count ballot papers by candlelight. Better, I suppose, than counting them with your eyes shut, but only just.
Yet another problem. Staff. Normally teachers and other civil servants are roped in to man the polling stations, etc. But the money on offer - US$5 a day - is not enough. The staff say they want US$50 a day. Some chance.
When this document comes to the attention of our beloved President Bob - and with all modesty I have to admit that I only get secret documents a short while before he does - the roof of State House will probably lift off. Because it puts him and the whole rotten Zanu-PF gang in a quandary.
If they postpone the elections to June, as the ZEC wants, then my goodness! The opposition might get themselves properly organised! Disaster! But, if they go ahead in March, the election might be a total shambles, open to world-wide condemnation, even from Zim 1's so-called friends.
There is a third alternative, or so my sarcastic mind tells me. Perhaps Mugabe will say: "To hell with it! We won't bother with any piffling elections. We always rig them anyway. Instead we will declare me President for Life, we will declare Zanu-PF the eternal government, and we will go on year after year robbing the country blind while its common people sink ever deeper into misery and deprivation."
Oh dear. What have I said? Perhaps that's exactly what he will do.
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