IF the country is going to hold elections in July or August this year as has been hinted, then we are just left with three to four months before the polls.
And the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has assured us that it is now busy cleaning up the voters roll, a very important document that lists all people who register to vote in an election, to prepare it for final inspection by voters before the plebiscite.
Zec deputy chairperson Rodney Simukai Kiwa recently said: “After the cleaning exercise has been completed, the voters roll for the mobile voter registration exercise is compiled and laid out for inspection by the public. The inspection of the voters roll is also a way of ensuring that details of registrants were captured correctly before the final roll is produced for elections.”
This is all well and good and we all eagerly await the completion of Zec processes so that everyone will have the opportunity to inspect the document and stakeholders who have been demanding it for quite some time will have the chance to access it.
Agitated electoral stakeholders are already pushing for people to protest over the apparent delay by Zec to release the document. Given Zec’s plausible explanation for the delay in releasing the voters roll, maybe we should all give it the benefit of doubt and hope that the document will be available well ahead of the polls because time may not really be on the electoral body’s side.
We, therefore, appeal to Zec to be as transparent as possible in this process, given that it has been accused of being involved in all sorts of chicaneries during the delimitation process which led to its preliminary and final delimitation reports being roundly dismissed as flawed. The enactment of the final delimitation report was deemed unconstitutional and the case is now before the courts, which has gravely dented Zec’s reputation and throws into doubt the organisation’s ability to conduct credible elections.
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Zec should by all means avoid a situation whereby electoral stakeholders question its conduct and independence.
We do sincerely pray that what many fear will not happen if it releases the voters roll late and causes an outcry.
We get worried when (as reported elsewhere in this issue of NewsDay) such prominent political observers as Rejoice Ngwenya have already concluded that: “I know that Zec will pretend to have released it in ‘time of nomination court,’ but if there is any reason to boycott an election, it is this issue. A series of national protests, litigation and regional Southern African Development Community partners should do the trick.”
We hope it will (and should) not get to this. Zec should simply diligently, professionally and timely execute its mandate and not expose itself to unnecessary prying and embarrassment that it can easily avoid. Zec needs to steer clear of needless humiliation by simply always remembering that it is an independent organisation guided by the critical values of integrity, teamwork, impartiality, transparency, independence and inclusivity. This is all Zec should be about and it has another chance to prove that it is cut for it by acting wisely on the voters roll issue.