The was revealed by Zec deputy elections officer Jane
Chigiji yesterday when she appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Justice to speak on the commission’s 2022 budget allocation.
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube allocated $11,6 billion to
Zec against its $23 billion bid to conduct various electoral activities next
year.
Zec is supposed to conduct a voter registration blitz,
by-elections to fill vacant local government and parliamentary seats in March
and a delimitation exercise — redrawing electoral boundaries ahead of the 2023
elections.
But Chigiji said the Zec allocation was too little to cater
for the costly exercises.
“We had put up a bid of $23 billion for preparation for the
2022 by-elections. Only $11,6 billion was allocated to us, meaning that there
is a huge shortfall,” Chigiji said.
“We intend to conduct a voter registration blitz by the end
of 2021, but it has been moved to 2022 to pave way for the Registrar-General’s
Office to be able to issue identity documents, which are key for voter
registration.
“We have pending by elections, the proposed budget
allocation is not adequate to support the policy, priorities and strategies. We
hope that in the event of a supplementary budget following the midterm review
statement, additional support will be availed to Zec.”
Election watchdogs such as the Zimbabwe Election Support
Network (Zesn) have said inadequate funding of Zec is a threat to democracy as
it impedes electoral processes.
Chigiji said other challenges affecting Zec include the
need to fill vacant posts in the electoral body and a review of salaries of its
employees.
“The commission again may fail to avail competitive
conditions of service leading to mass resignations and failure to attack
skilled manpower required for Zec to carry out its mandate and this will
compromise the service delivery of the commission,” she said.
Political analysts said measly allocations to Zec show a
lack of commitment on the part of government to conduct free and fair
elections.
“The willingness of ensuring the independence of the
commission should be evident in how the body is enabled through funding to
carry out the requisite tasks such as voter registration and education,”
political analyst Vivid Gwede said.
“So the funding just represents one of the many factors
limiting the capacities of the commission.
However, funding Zec before it is reformed as an institution in terms of
its independence would not help much,” he said.
On Wednesday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa torched a storm
when he said opposition parties and civic organisations have failed to explain
what kind of electoral reforms they were demanding.
Mnangagwa said this while addressing the Zanu PF 357th
politburo meeting.
“This misplaced narrative that we need reforms, economic
reforms, electoral reforms is misplaced.
No one has said what types of electoral reforms are required,” Mnangagwa
said.
But MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said there was
need to implement the Sadc guidelines on elections.
“We reiterate our call for the alignment of electoral laws
to the Constitution. We also call for the earnest implementation of the Sadc
guidelines and the full disbandment of the partisan and militarised Zec
secretariat.
“In fact, the MDC Alliance led by Advocate Nelson Chamisa
believes that our widely published #PRICE (Reliable, Inclusive and Credible
Elections) campaign spells out all the reforms necessary for a free, fair and
credible election,” Mahere said.
Mnangagwa’s government has been accused of lacking
political will to implement reforms despite promises to do so. Newsday
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