THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) seems determined to
ignore recommendations made by observer missions to level the political playing
field and run free and fair elections, a top opposition official has said.
MDC secretary for elections Jacob Mafume said the
opposition party’s experiences in the recently held Bikita and Nyanga
by-elections showed that Zec is unwilling to reform.
Zanu PF won the Nyanga Rural District Council poll through
its candidate Bisset Mapeta, with 397 votes against Vincent Bopoto of MDC
Alliance, who got 236. There were only two parties that contested.
In Bikita’s ward 31, Zanu PF candidate Thomas Matanga
garnered 1 112 votes against Moses Maphosa of MDC Alliance’s 410 votes, while
Peter Mavenga of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) came third with 23
votes.
“Zec has not implemented any of the reforms that were put
down by observer missions and stakeholders after last year’s elections. They
still allow vote-buying, where food is distributed within the area of elections
on voting day. There is a letter from Health minister (Obadiah Moyo) directing
that medicines be distributed in an area where there is a pending election in
order to favour Zanu PF. Zec is, however, silent in all this,” he said.
Mafume also said Zec continues to employ personnel with
military links at a time when the body was urged to demilitarise its
structures.
Zec recently appointed Utoile Silaigwana, a former soldier,
as the substantive chief elections officer taking over from Constance
Chigwamba.
“They (Zec) are determined to run elections in a way that
favours Zanu PF. The State media is also still a closed space for us. We are
going to use the courts and pile political pressure to correct these
anomalies,” the MDC official said. Newsday
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