The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) is set to undergo a
major facelift with its chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba and fellow
commissioners expected to be forced out by 2021 just in time for a neutral team
to run the 2023 general elections, if the on-going Political Actors Dialogue
(Polad) members get their way.
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) leader Lovemore
Madhuku, who is part of Polad, told NewsDay that Chigumba will not run the 2023
general elections, saying the entire commission will pack its bags by 2021.
“She (Justice Chigumba) will not be there in 2023, you can
get it from us, she was appointed, she will have to resign or somewhat
compensated, but 2023 elections will not be run by a chairperson who was
appointed by the President. In the 2023 elections, the whole commission will be
appointed by a body of politicians who are players. That is the reform that we
want. We actually want the Constitution to be amended. To have a conference of
political actors to endorse the commission,” Madhuku said.
The Nelson Chamisa-led MDC, among other civic organisations,
has accused Zec of being partisan and aiding Zanu PF in elections, especially
its handling of the designing and printing of ballot papers, allocation of
polling stations and management of the voters roll.
Madhuku said Polad was concerned about Zec and was,
therefore, moving to flush out problematic areas in the electoral management
body.
“The second thing to change is to ensure that Zec is not
only independent, but has to be seen to be independent so we are going to be
changing the appointment process, the chairperson of the Zec must not be
appointed by the President or the President in consultation with so and so; no,
no, no,” Madhuku said.
“That person must be approved by a platform of political
actors, so Polad is going to appoint the chairperson of the electoral
commission of the 2023 elections; that will be a massive change. For you to be
chairperson of Zec, you must get the buy-in of Polad and that is one of the
reforms that we are going to put. The President can appoint all the other things,
but not the people who run elections, that was the mistake of 2018.”
Inside Zec is the all-powerful logistics committee and a
number of alleged former securocrats accused of pulling the strings in favour
of Zanu PF, a party with strong military links. Madhuku said that committee
will also be flushed out.
“We are not worried about the security actors in Zec, they
will all be removed, that is what Polad is all about. There are people who
think Polad is a play field and it has no teeth, they will see that Polad has
teeth. We are going to remove the entire thing, for the 2023 elections you must
enjoy the confidence of Polad, including those who will come in wanting to
contest the 2023 elections and this must be in place by 2021. We must actually
have in place a new Zec,” he said.
While opposition parties have been blamed for sitting on
their laurels and failing to push for electoral reforms only to raise their
heads on the eve of the polls, Madhuku said between now and the next election,
there must be work to ensure that the next election is free and peaceful.
Zimbabwe Elections Support Network (Zesn), which has since
petitioned Parliament for electoral reforms, has also developed a tracker which
will note all reforms, particularly those raised in line with recommendations
made by electoral observer missions who observed the 2018 general elections.
Key among the recommendations captured by Zesn in a
compendium of 100 recommendations is the transmission of results, fair media
coverage and electoral malpractices.
Madhuku said all this will be dealt with as Polad moves to
reform State-controlled media and public broadcasters.
“We want to have an environment where everyone has access
to the public media, access to radio, access to ZTV because they are the most
widespread, that must be done. In the last election, if you were not a Zanu PF
candidate you got a maximum of a stage-managed interview where the ZBC
interviewers would try to downgrade you as a politician, whereas the other
player who is the President ED would be on television every day, that is the
first thing to change.”
Chamisa’s MDC is pushing for demonstrations and diplomatic
pressure on Zanu PF and government with the hope of ousting Mnangagwa before
2023 and replacing him with a transitional government that can wring in real
reforms, but Polad is opposed to this move, saying only elections matter.
“Look, they (Zanu PF) have no clue, but we have no legal
standing ourselves to remove them because people are put in place by the
electorate, all we can do is facilitate the holding of the next election under
different conditions. You cannot use the streets to remove the government of
the day, in the same way you cannot use the military to remove the government
of the day. The government of the day will have to be removed through a free,
fair and legitimate election,” he said.
Zanu PF representative at Polad and politburo member
Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana said his party was unaware of any push to fire Zec
commissioners or reform the commission.
“I am not aware of any meeting that such an item was on the
agenda. I have lots of respect for Professor Madhuku, but we have never had
that issue on the agenda. If Zanu PF wants to reform Zec, it will certainly not
discuss that with the media,” Mangwana said. Newsday
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