In October last year, government through Vice-President and
Health Minister Constantino Chiwenga ordered the suspension of by-elections
citing COVID-19 fears.
The by-elections were necessitated by the recall of MDC
Alliance MPs by the Douglas Mwonzora-led MDC-T and deaths of some MPs, which
left about 26 seats vacant, according to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(Zec).
Contributing to parliamentary debate on the Zec report for
the year 2020 on Thursday, Ziyambi said the country was sticking to the
suspension of by-elections due to COVID-19. He said polls would only take place
upon achievement of the vaccination targets.
“You do not vote when you are dead. You do not exercise
your democratic rights when you are dead,” Ziyambi said.
“I believe that all things being equal, once we have
reached herd immunity, we are going to vote. So for now, we stick to the laws
that are there.”
In April this year, Chiwenga said the country was targeting
the 10 million vaccination mark by year-end to allow life to get back to
normal.
Of the intended target, only 1 352 514 had received their
first doses by Thursday, while 664 587 had received their second jab.
But Dzivarasekwa MP Edwin Mushoriwa (MDC Alliance) said Zec
was not moving with speed to fulfil its mandate and the delay was prejudicing
the electorate currently not represented in Parliament.
“If you check the Zec report of 2020 and then you check its
mandate and what it is supposed to do, you will realise that there are a lot of
gaps that need to be filled,” he said.
“As we speak right now, we have got numerous vacancies in
the House and a number of constituencies do not have MPs. A number of wards in
this country do not have councillors. By-elections and representation is the
key ingredient in a democratic society.”
Mushoriwa said the failure to conduct by-elections in a
country with at least 20% of the people not represented was putting the
“democratic ethos of a country in jeopardy”.
“We do not want to have a situation where other people will
then tend to view the electoral commission as a commission in handcuffs,” he
said.
“It appears as if it is doing the bidding of other people
rather than the mandate which it was given by the Constitution and the people
of Zimbabwe.”
Mushoriwa said a lot of gatherings had been allowed to
proceed in Zimbabwe and raised questions why government was particular in
stopping by-elections.
“We have had quite a number of church gatherings, some
apostolic sects having more than 10 000 people gathered at a shrine.
“Right now, we are here passing laws, budgets and other
things, but we also need to be cognisant — what about the people of Kuwadzana,
who do not have a voice in Parliament? What about the people in Highfield, in
Mkoba, they also need to have their voice. They need to have a channel upon
which they can throw in some of their recommendations and some of the things
that they want Parliament to do and to change.”
The MDC Alliance desperately wants the by-elections to
regain its parliamentary presence after losing most of its legislators, a
development that also forced it to lose funding under the Political Parties
(Finance) Act.
Yesterday, Zec announced that it had suspended operations
for two weeks due to the raging COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is hereby notified for the general public that all
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission offices across the country will temporarily close
for 14 days from July 26, 2021 to August 8, 2021; in response to rising
COVID-19 cases countrywide,” Zec chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba said in
a statement.
Zimbabwe has recorded 95 722 new infections and 63 819
recoveries in the past two weeks. Newsday
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