THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) is advocating for a
ban on the use of social media in circulating electoral issues, claiming the
platforms churned out “poison” during this year’s disputed polls.
This was revealed by Zec’s director of voter education,
Taurai Gavi, during a post-election media review workshop in Bulawayo on
Thursday.
Social media refers to websites and applications that are
designed to allow people to share content quickly, efficiently, and in real
time.
These include WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter. In his
presentation on the electoral body’s assessment of media coverage for the July
30 elections, Gavi bemoaned the absence of a regulation to deal with social
media.
“The non-existence of a regulation to stop social media
from meddling in electoral processes and thereby feeding lies to the nation is
one of our top concerns following what happened in the last election. The
social media literally spread poison by way of several misconceptions and lies
during the election,” he said.
Gavi said Zec would approach Parliament to enact a law to
effectively deal with social media before the 2023 harmonised elections.
“We need serious regulation of social media by way of a law
and Zec is going to lobby parliamentarians to ensure such a piece of
legislation is put in place ahead of the 2023 elections,” he said.
During the last elections, social media circulated what was
believed to be evidence of vote-rigging.
In some instances, social media also issued out photos of
documents that showed irregularities of Zec processes, including what appeared
to be tampered results.
Contacted for comment over the intended social media ban,
MDC Alliance spokesperson Jacob Mafume slammed the electoral body’s proposal.
“If they could not run an election properly, what makes
them think they can control social media? There will emerge forms of that media
that he does not understand at all,” he said.
“The issue is they did not do things properly from
registration onwards and that the election ended up in shambles and the results
not worth the paper they were announced on.”
Veteran journalist and media trainer Vincent Kahiya said
there was no way Zec could legislate against opinion.
“Zec must just invest more in its results management system
which in last elections created a lot of anxiety among citizens due to its
laxity,” he said.
“Zec must also accept that these are modern times and
technology is moving fast. So instead of trying to regulate social media, Zec
must actually use the same communication vehicle to announce election results.
“We need to see Zec using WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter,
for example, to announce results and dispel misconceptions. The analogue system
that Zec is using in this day is no longer very efficient.” Newsday
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