AN opinion poll run by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) yesterday indicated that the majority of citizens feel that registration of political parties is not necessary.
The poll was conducted at the Harare Agriculture Show on Thursday and Friday and on Zec’s Twitter handle to gather public opinion on registration of political parties.
Zec says it has 200 names of political parties on its database, but only around 10% participate in electoral processes.
Results of the Twitter poll show that 57,2% of the people who participated felt that registration of party was not necessary, while 37,5% supported the idea, with 5,3% not very sure.
Zec spokesperson Jasper Mangwana said they were still collating results from the poll.
The electoral mother body has already made its recommendations to the Justice ministry on registration of parties and other electoral reforms, but it wanted to get public views which could help in the law-making process.
“We just want to get the public opinion, but we have already made the recommendations on the amendment of the Electoral Act on registration of political parties,” Mangwana said.
“We want to hear the citizens’ reasons for wanting or not wanting parties to be registered so that when the law is finally made, their opinion will be considered.”
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Under the current Electoral Act, it is not a legal requirement for political parties to register with Zec.
Political parties can only inform the body about their presence and intention to partake in elections.
During the poll, citizens, however, slammed Zec for majoring on what they deemed minor issues while ignoring its core business such as providing a credible voters roll.
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