Under the Covid-19 policy, ZEC officers have been trained
to preside over the polls in strict adherence to World Health Organisation
(WHO) protocols, to protect not only themselves but also the voters.
In March last year, electoral activities were suspended in
response to the Covid-19 pandemic which has claimed more than a thousand lives
in Zimbabwe and also wreaked livelihoods.
Elections were suspended as part of a cocktail of measures
to beat back caseloads of the pandemic that also forced the Government to
impose lockdowns.
However, with the cloud seemingly clearing, and on the back
of a nationwide vaccination programme, ZEC chairperson Justice Priscilla
Chigumba yesterday told an inter-party liaison workshop meeting in Harare that
the commission is ready to conduct by-elections using the Covid-19 policy.
“For today’s meeting, we have a demonstration of polling
station procedures for the sole reason of showing the political parties that we
do have a Covid-19 policy, which we have put in place. We have trained our
presiding officers in conducting elections using our Covid-19 policy.
“We have several scenarios, we did demonstrations, they
were allowed to ask questions. As a commission, we are ready to conduct
by-elections and all elections and electoral processes using our Covid-19
policy which means Covid-19 compliant electoral processes.
“We are not only on complying with Covid-19 policies for
registered voters, we are also looking at our presiding officers — those that
we send on the ground — to ensure that they have Personal Protective Equipment
(PPEs), sanitisers and masks to ensure they are also safe and that they conduct
their duties in a way that is compliant with Covid-19 regulations,” said
Justice Chigumba.
Zimbabwe is warming up to the by-elections that President
Mnangagwa hinted will be held in the first quarter of next year, with
harmonised elections set for 2023.
As of October 22, the country had a total of 133 elective
by-elections at National Assembly and local authority levels, most of which
were necessitated by recalls in the MDC, deaths and expulsions.
Justice Chigumba added that Treasury has availed enough
funds for the by-elections.
“We are prepared. We have received sufficient funding from
the Treasury to do all our procurement, ballot papers, ink, and what we are
looking at right now is sufficient procurement of sanitisers, masks among
others.
“We are also going to conduct training. We will shortly be
seconding civil servants, Public Service Commission. We will send people for
training not only for by-elections but polling station marking and
pre-delimitation exercise,” she said.
At the workshop, Zanu PF was represented by the party’s
Deputy Secretary for Legal Affairs Fortune Chasi, MDC-T by Ms Ruth Labode,
MDC-A by Mr Ian Makone and Mr Jacob Mafume, while Mr Themba Mliswa attended as
an independent candidate, with Justice Chigumba expressing satisfaction with
the engagement.
“I am happy with the outcome. We had a robust debate,
robust questions, and answers, so I am very happy. It is our second multi-party
liaison meeting with political players in Parliament. I am hopeful that going
forward we will continue inviting them, we will continue to talk to them and
discuss with them. We will continue to debate issues around the application of
the electoral topical issues,” said Justice Chigumba.
Such interactive platforms will nurture an environment of
tolerance, moving away from needless polarisation, she said. Herald
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