THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has said it is executing its functions independently and is confident of delivering credible elections as it does not fear or favour any political party.
Instead of political players sensationalising and
dramatising electoral processes to create alarm and despondency ahead of
elections set for August, they should focus on depolarising the election
environment, the commission urged.
ZEC said it opened the voters roll for inspection to enable
the public to audit its process and will attend to any anomaly that may arise.
The voters roll inspection has seen opposition politicians
claiming their names are not on the voters roll, but after further engagement
with ZEC, they have found that their names were on the voters roll after all.
Citizen Coalition of Change (CCC) senior member Professor
Welshman Ncube is among the politicians who were quick to post on social media
platform Twitter that their names were not on the voters roll.
However, upon approaching ZEC’s provincial offices he was
assisted and told of the specific polling station where his name is.
“At Windsor Park the lady who attended to me first used the
electronic platform and the system could not locate my name and ID particulars.
She then went into the ZEC computer mainframe and advised that my name appeared
on the voters roll for Burnside Garage Tent Polling Station,” tweeted Prof
Ncube.
“I also asked how my name would appear on their mainframe
computer and yet their electronic platform is unable to find my name and ID
particulars which are in the system and they had no explanation. All they could
say is that there are similar problems across Bulawayo and are being attended
to.”
Another CCC leader, Mr David Coltart said his polling
station had changed, but after verifying he was informed that it had not
changed.
He said using the *265# facility on a mobile phone, he
learnt that he was supposed to vote at Hillside Bowling Club, but upon visiting
the station he was not on the voters roll.
“Eventually at lunchtime today I went back to the @ZECzim
offices at Windsor Park. It was even more inundated with people than yesterday
but after asking around I did find a young man who was prepared to go into the
#Zec database and found that I am registered at Burnside Garage,” said Mr
Coltart.
CCC leader Mr Nelson Chamisa went to Kuwadzana suburb in
Harare to check his details, and found nothing untoward.
ZEC chief elections officer Mr Utloile Silaigwana said the
commission made public the provisional voters roll by taking it to communities
for people to check their names as it has nothing to hide.
Mr Silaigwana said at law, people are expected to visit ZEC
offices for inspection purposes but the commission had gone an extra mile by
establishing more than 11 000 centres countrywide.
He said the delimitation exercise that the commission
conducted recently could have changed the electorate’s polling station among
other anomalies being attended to.
“Probably some people could have gone to the places where
they usually vote but because of the delimitation exercise they might have been
moved. There is no need for anyone to press a panic button because these
anomalies that I’m talking about can be corrected,” said Mr Silaigwana.
He said it is in ZEC’s interest to deliver a credible
election as the country’s Constitution guarantees ZEC’s independence and it
does not act in a partisan manner.
“The independence of ZEC is guaranteed. Firstly, it is
guaranteed by the Constitution. ZEC reports to nobody except to Parliament. It
is for that reason that you may want to know that ZEC used to report through a
ministry, but now reports straight to Parliament. The Ministry of Justice
(Legal and Parliamentary Affairs) is just an administrative conduit but we now
report straight to Parliament,” he said.
“That alone guarantees the independence of ZEC. Secondly,
ZEC is independent in its functions. It is functioning independently and there
is no where you find out that ZEC produces, for instance voter education
material that favours party A or party B. And it is for that reason that when
ZEC conducts voter education and voter information, it makes sure that those
who are not ZEC, who are allowed by the law, civil society organisations, faith
based organisations and other organisations, cannot go to the field without ZEC
having approved their materials to make sure that their material is not biased
and they are actually neutral.”
Mr Silaigwana said with regards to its operations there is
no need for the public to make unfounded claims on how it prepares for polls.
“There is no need to over-dramatize some of these things
and also sensationalise elections in our country. We all have the
responsibility to build this country, we all need this stability and there is
no need to be saying things that don’t exist. ZEC is truly independent,” said
Mr Silaigwana.
He said political parties should work towards depolarising
the election environment.
Mr Silaigwana said if the political landscape is not
conducive some special interests’ groups may be forced not to participate in
the polls.
“There is no need to cause alarm in our electoral
processes. It is not necessary for alarmists to cause despondency in an
election. Elections must be held in a peaceful environment. Elections belong to
the ordinary people and the ordinary people must be protected by an
environment,” said Mr Silaigwana
“We appeal to the political actors to create a conducive
and peaceful environment so that our elections must be held where everyone
wants to participate. If that does not happen people with disabilities,
pregnant women and the old may not participate in the elections because they
might think that the elections may become violent.”
He said the commission is ready to hold this year’s
harmonised elections and is confident that Government will finance the holding
of the polls. Chronicle
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