The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is preparing for next year’s harmonised elections, with the ongoing delimitation exercise set for completion soon. The Sunday Mail’s Wallace Ruzvidzo (WR) spoke to ZEC spokesperson, Commissioner Jasper Mangwana (JM), on a range of issues, including preparations for next year’s plebiscite.
WR: Can you give us your assessment of by-elections that
were held this year?
JM: The commission held a lot of by-elections this year,
including the March 26 ones, which were quite big.
As a commission, we are happy with how our officers handled
the elections because we did not have any major adverse incidents or issues in
conducting them.
We held the last ones on December 17.
We are now waiting for the pending court judgement on the
five wards in Binga, which were challenged in the Electoral Court.
We have seen great improvement in the conduct of polls.
People now better understand the legal aspects governing
the conduct of by-elections, for example, that not everyone can participate in
by-elections.
There are laws that determine who can participate in both
local authorities and National Assembly by-elections.
For local authorities, the voters’ roll closes the day the
vacancy arises, and for the National Assembly, it closes two days after
proclamation of the by-election.
As a commission, we are happy that we did not have court
cases challenging by-election results held throughout the year.
WR: What challenges did ZEC face during by-elections and
how have they been addressed?
JM: Problems in elections are always the same, but the
commission will continue to execute its mandate because we are aware of our
Constitutional mandate, so, we will continue to ensure that we continue
engaging stakeholders so that we improve on voter education.
The commission is happy because, when you see people
mobilising their supporters to register to vote, it means they have faith in
the process that is free, fair and credible.
WR: How prepared is ZEC for the 2023 harmonised elections?
JM: The commission is actively preparing for the 2023
harmonised elections.
You can never say that we are already prepared, but we are,
indeed, working flat out to ensure that preparations for the elections are well
on course.
We are also constantly advising the public on what the
commission is doing to make sure that come 2023, we are ready to conduct the
elections.
WR: How much will ZEC require to conduct the 2023
elections?
JM: The commission was allocated $101 billion, which
includes $77 billion to conduct the elections, with the remainder going towards
administration costs.
ZEC will continue to ensure that we undertake our mandate
according to provisions of the law.
And the budget is adequate to guarantee that we deliver.
However, we will continue to lobby for more resources from
Treasury, despite that, as a commission, we have never failed to deliver an
election because of budget constraints. We would like to appreciate Government
for its continued commitment to this key democratic exercise.
WR: Can you outline progress you have made in undertaking
the delimitation exercise?
JM: The commission is working flat out on the delimitation
exercise, and when we are ready, we will appraise the public on the latest
developments.
However, if this exercise is not completed or the
boundaries are proclaimed less than six months before the election, we will
have to revert to using the 2007-2008 electoral boundaries.
It is also important to note that this is the first time we
have done the delimitation exercise in terms of the 2013 Constitution.
Again, this is also the first time we are responsible for
the demarcation of ward boundaries, which is more administrative and has a huge
effect on resource allocation, as well as community development.
So, we are ensuring that we do a perfect job.
It is also important to note that, as we are conducting
this exercise, it also has implications on the 2023 elections.
Another issue also pertains to the amendment of the
Electoral Act, and any changes to the law.
The commission has always argued that it is important for
the legislature to ensure that these laws are changed on time.
We also appreciate that the authorities are looking into
setting up provincial councils and the youth quota system because these are
quite important as we approach next year’s elections.
WR: Turning to the voters’ roll; some stakeholders have
questioned the integrity of the document. How does the commission respond to
these allegations?
JM: We have seen a lot of speculation from institutions
that are not really known and we don’t know what they represent.
But what we can say is that, as a commission, we have a
continuous voters’ roll inspection platform, which is *265#. This can be used
by the public.
The commission has been providing this platform to ensure
that people can apply for the correction of their registration details if there
are any problems.
We are, however, happy that complaints about the voters’
roll amounted to less than 1 percent of the entire listing.
The complaints were raised during the voter inspection
exercise, which ran for 10 days; in addition, the voters’ roll was published at
11 107 traditional polling stations countrywide.
So, to answer your question, the allegations are untrue.
They are coming from people who want to tarnish the
commission’s image, because the voters’ roll inspection was done by the owners
of the information.
There is no way a third party can be allowed access to
someone’s identity details.
The commission is happy that no political party has raised
issues about the voters’ rolls that we gave them for by-elections.
All contestants were given the voters’ rolls, and none of
them raised any complaints.
So, as a commission, we are saying people should disregard
speculators and engage us directly.
WR: What is the commission doing to safeguard the integrity
of its systems from online mischief makers who reportedly hacked your website
recently?
JM: We have reported this shadowy group to the police
because it has attempted to hack our systems multiple times and we have left
the matter to them for investigation.
However, we will continue to advise the public to desist
from threatening the institution or attempting to get into online platforms
used by the commission because that is a crime.
WR: How much progress has ZEC made in cleaning up the
voters’ roll by removing names of deceased voters ahead of the elections next
year?
JM: The commission will continue to publish notices of the
deceased so that they can be removed from the voters’ roll.
We look forward to quite a lot being gazetted in the coming
year, as we prepare for the 2023 elections. Sunday Mail
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