LEGISLATIVE watchdog, Veritas, has said the Lupane East
by-election will count as yet another failure by government to comply with the
country’s Constitution.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, by proclamation, set August 3
as the day for the by-election to fill the Lupane East National Assembly seat
that fell vacant following the death of Zanu PF legislator, Sithembile Gumbo in
April.
Gumbo died on April 5 at United Bulawayo Hospitals from
injuries sustained in a road accident. However, Veritas said the Constitution
stipulates that all by-elections be held within 90 days of the vacancy
occurring, meaning Mnangagwa was in violation the very Constitution he should
uphold.
“This by-election, like too many of its predecessors since
2013, will count as yet another failure to comply with the Constitution–the
polling day fixed for the by-election is over a month after the Constitution’s
90-day deadline,” Veritas said in a statement.
Under section 39 of the Electoral Act, the Speaker is
required to notify a vacancy in the National Assembly to the President
promptly, and the President’s proclamation must be gazetted within 14 days of
receipt of the notification in the President’s Office. In the present case,
Veritas said a process that should
not have taken more than three weeks has taken seven weeks.
Veritas said problems that were highlighted in the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network (Zesn) report on the February and March by-elections
that should have been avoided in the Lupane East poll include turning away of a
significant number of would-be voters for going to the wrong polling station.
Some of them were unable to proceed to the polling stations they were
redirected to.
Zesn accordingly recommended that for future elections Zec
should ensure that there is adequate signage to direct voters to their appropriate
polling stations and to post the voters’ roll outside each polling stations to
enable voters to check their names first. Newsday
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