THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has ruled out
chances of postponing next Monday’s national elections, insisting it was all
systems go despite complaints by opposition parties that the ground was not yet
level for a free and fair contest.
Briefing accredited observers in Harare yesterday, Zec
deputy chairperson Emmanuel Magade said they had handled the election preparations
in a manner that did not warrant a disputable outcome.
The opposition MDC Alliance has threatened to block the
holding of elections until Zec has guaranteed transparency in the security of
the ballot paper.
Magade said if anyone had problems with the Electoral Act,
they should go to Parliament because the commission’s role was to implement the
law.
“We pride ourselves in being servants of the law,” Magade
said. “There is no way we can subvert the Constitution. I think if there are
things that are humanly possible for us to rectify, to intervene in the time
left between now and July 30 then that can be done, but postponement of the
election is out of the question.”
“In terms of the Constitution, we have to abide
meticulously and religiously by the provision of the Constitution.”
With regards to the “shambolic voters’ roll”, Zec
commissioner Qhubani Moyo said it was in a good and usable state.
“Our position as a Commission is that we are satisfied that
the voters’ roll is in perfect order. It is a new voters’ roll that has been
under construction since last year in September,” Moyo said.
“We gave it out for people to check their names or any errors
and omissions that needed to be corrected. We went on to check for ourselves
using the AFIS system to see if there were any duplications and we are very
much satisfied that the roll is very much in order.”
Moyo admitted that there could have been some typographical
errors, adding that those had since been rectified.
Moyo said Zec had been engaging the parties so that they
could point the exact areas where there were inconsistencies.
The commissioners also expressed disheartenment over the
nature of abuse spewed against the female commissioners, especially on social
media.
Meanwhile, the police elections commander, Senior Assistant
Commissioner Erasmus Makodza, promised that the force would be thorough and
professional in their work during the polls.
He said there had taken the officers involved in the polls
for retraining in areas of elections.
He said they had been reports of both inter-party and
intra-party violence.
For inter-party crimes that include assault, 51 suspects
had been arrested, with another 33 arrested for defacing of rivals’ political
posters.
Thirty-three suspects had been arrested for tearing of
political posters, intimidation and threats and for malicious damage to
property. Newsday
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