Zimbabwe Standard
ZIMBABWE has several bodies dealing with elections and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) believes this is a ploy to confuse voters.
David Coltart, the MDC secretary for legal affairs, says the government has successfully hoodwinked the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) into thinking the recently enacted Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Act had levelled the electoral playing field. He said the SADC Guidelines governing democratic elections were clear on the need for non-partisan electoral bodies.
Part of the SADC guidelines stipulates that member states shall: “Establish impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable national electoral bodies staffed by qualified personnel, as well as competent legal entities, including effective constitutional courts to arbitrate in the event of disputes arising from the conduct of elections.”
Coltart listed the electoral bodies as the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC), the Delimitation Commission, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), the Observers’ Accreditation Commission and the Registrar General’s Office, which registers voters.
“The Electoral Supervisory Commission is appointed by Robert Mugabe and therefore cannot be impartial. The Delimitation Commission is appointed by Mugabe and therefore cannot be impartial, the Observers’ Accreditation Commission is headed by the chairperson of the ESC, who is an appointee of the President. The Registrar General is accountable to Cabinet. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission goes some way towards being inclusive in its nature but it does not include civic society, churches and the public. In any case, its chairperson is appointed by Mugabe.”Coltart said
The ESC is a product of constitutional provisions and was formerly headed by Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, now the Attorney General.
A commissioner in the ESC, Joyce Kazembe, told a workshop organised by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) in Bulawayo last week that although soldiers would not supervise elections in March, the ESC would continue to employ them at their secretariat.
“I cannot deny that we still have members of the military that we employ as our staff. The military have a lot of excess staff.”
On concerns about the large number of players in the electoral process, Kazembe said: “Change, no matter how fast we may want it, does not come in one day. We are not supposed to be in the transitional stage of the electoral process but we are.”
Otto Saki, a member of the Lawyers for Human Rights, said a sign of confusion prevailing in the electoral process was that although ZEC was supposed to call for the registration of voters, by the time the commission was put in place, the process had already started.