THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has been accused of being too secretive on the delimitation roadmap as opposition parties raised fears yesterday that the process could be rigged in favour of the ruling Zanu PF party.
The concerns were raised by various electoral stakeholders
including political parties during a Twitter space discussion hosted by the
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn) on Wednesday.
Zec did not attend the online discussion, despite having
received an invitation from Zesn.
Zec says it has already deployed delimitation committees to
various districts and provinces and the commission is hoping to have new
constituency boundaries by December. Delimitation involves redrawing of
electoral boundaries according to population sizes in the districts. The
process is conducted every 10 years following a national census.
The last delimitation, conducted in 2008 in terms of the
old Constitution and based on the Registrar-Generals’ voters roll, was disputed
with critics and the opposition saying it was skewed in favour of the ruling
party. The current exercise is being conducted using the April 2022 population
and housing census data.
Political parties, however, said they were in the dark on
how the electoral body was running the exercise.
Citizens Coalition for Change secretary for elections Ian
Makone said: “The way Zec is carrying out the delimitations process is quite disturbing. Zec informed us that the
most important aspect of the
delimitation process is the voters roll. That has not been availed to our
people. How will they confirm where they
belong in terms of their constituencies in the absence of the voters roll? That alone raises questions on issues of
transparency. Then there is the issue of engagement. We have written to Zec several times
inquiring about the voters roll and
demanding it to be availed to the public for inspection. However, we did not get any favoaurable
response from Zec, which makes us question the credibility of the whole
delimitation process.”
Gweru Urban MP Brian Dube (MDC Alliance) said: “Zec has not
been keen on updating on the activities that they are doing. We need to have a
statement from the Minister of Justice explaining in detail the process that
has been done so far. The other
challenge is that we don’t have a clear framework for complaints against Zec.
In terms of how they have conducted themselves, they do not meet the minimum
standards required in terms of the principles, guidelines and model laws of
Sadc in terms of their character, attitude and behaviour especially in handling
the preparations for next year’s elections.
Linda Masarira, leader of the Labour, Economists and
African Democrats party said: “Whatever timetables Zec has set are just meant
to theoretically fulfil the constitutional provision without taking into
consideration the stakeholders and their input. There might be something
clandestine happening between Zec and the ruling party because we are all being
sidelined from knowing what process is taking place.”
Zimbabwe First (ZimFirst) secretary-general Tafadzwa Tom
said: “The truth is there is no engagement whatsoever with Zec with regards to
delimitation. We must work hand-in-hand with Zec in all its processes to pave
way for a free, fair and credible election.”
Patriotic Zimbabweans (PZ)leader Charles Muchineripi-Mutama
said lack of transparency had dented the credibility of the outcome of the
delimitation exercise.
But Zec spokesperson Jasper Mangwana rubbished the
accusations saying they have conducted engagement meetings with various
stakeholders such as civil society organisations and traditional leaders on the
upcoming delimitation.
“There are also other civic society organisations, which
have submitted to the commission what they are calling proposed delimitation
reports which they have done and the commission can only peruse, but that will
not really define how we are going to be doing our processes,” Mangwana said.
“They are entitled to their own opinion, but as a
commission we will follow the law and the Constitution. We cannot simply
conclude the process because they have submitted documents. The commission is
the one mandated by the law to carry out delimitation . . . they should allow
the commission to do its work.”
Opposition parties raised fears that Zec may be conniving
with Zanu PF, a charge vehemently denied by ruling party information director
Tafadzwa Mugwadi.
“They must take their concerns to election authorities if
they are genuine concerns. Their reason for taking them to pliant social media
trolls and ghost platforms clearly attests to their mischief and lack of being
genuine,” Mugwadi said. Newsday
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