The Commission of Inquiry into the August 1, 2018
Post-Election Violence continued today with Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
Chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba testifying before the commission.
Justice Chigumba said political parties with legislators in
parliament should use their tenure to change the laws which they feel impede on
the electoral process.
Justice Gumba said her vilification by the opposition MDC
Alliance is well-documented, despite the electoral body discharging its duties
in terms of the law, which was confirmed by various court orders.
The ZEC boss says the electoral body has done a postmortem
of the elections and a draft report is ready containing recommendations on how
to improve the conducting of polls in Zimbabwe in future.
She pledged to furnish the commission with the draft
report.
Asked whether as ZEC they would be willing to recommend
that presidential election results be announced as they come constituency by
constituency or ward by ward, Justice Chigumba said the duty of ZEC is purely
to administer the laws regarding elections.
Justice Chigumba said multi-liaison committees which ZEC
tried to use in terms of the law to engage political parties were constantly
disrupted and the electoral body ended up abandoning them.
“Attempts at dialogue with political parties were always
hitting a brick wall…,” said Justice Chigumba.
Justice Chigumba said ZEC is also consulting the SADC
Electoral Forum and other regional electoral bodies to see how they can deal
with the lack of trust within elections’ stakeholders as well as to improve the
conduct of elections in Zimbabwe.
She gave an example of how she has been in touch with the
Zambian electoral commission, to share notes on how they run their polls.
Asked whether she thinks the army killed the civilians who
died, Justice Chigumba said she only learnt of what was happening from the
media.
“…I wasn’t there…yes the media said the army killed, people
were shot from the back….,” she said.
The ZEC chair revealed that most of the results for Harare
province came last, as there were a lot of verifications needed before their
announcement.
Director Legal Services in the Ministry of Industry and
Commerce Never Katiyo was next to testify. He spoke about the need for the
safeguarding of peace so as not to derail re-engagement efforts by the
government, adding that the country’s economic revival efforts were dented
following the August 1 violence which claimed 6 lives. zbc
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