via ‘Realignment of laws key to holding of free, fair elections’ – NewsDay Zimbabwe 3 December 2014 by Paidamoyo Muzulu
AN international elections consultant, Rushdi Nackerdien, yesterday said the holding of free and credible polls in 2018 hinges on government’s commitment to realigning electoral laws to the new Constitution and timely provision of adequate resources to the election management body.
Nackerdien made the remarks in Harare yesterday during a stakeholders meeting organised by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) where he presented his research findings titled: Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Identification of Needs Gaps.
The consultancy was funded by the Royal Danish Embassy.
“There is a major realignment of legislation to the new Constitution in relation to Zec’s work and mandate,” Nackerdien said.
Under the new Constitution adopted in May 2013, Zec was given a new mandate to compile and update the voters’ roll in addition to its traditional role of voter education and election management.
He added, “In the last elections budget was released late, but the ideal time of releasing resources according to Sadc (Southern African Development Community) guidelines is six months before election.”
The consultant also told the stakeholders that there should be a clear succession plan at Zec as most staff were nearing their retirement age.
“Of the 102 staff members at Zec their average is 54, and this means the organisation has to seriously look at staff retention as well succession planning,” he said.
However, representatives of opposition parties at the meeting accused Nackerdien of conniving with the State to ignore them during his research.
But Nackerdien refuted the allegations saying he failed to consult key political players due to time constraints.
COMMENTS
We have heard this nonsense before. Last time it was the new constitution which was supposed to be the key to a free and fair election in 2013 and now alignment of laws to the new constitution is perceived to be the key to a free and fair election in 2018. We know various components of the new constitution were crafted in various western embassies and given to the MDC to smuggle them into the new constitution during the negotiation stages of the drafting of the constitution and it is those smuggled anti-nation clauses that some western countries are anxious to see quickly come to force in the so called re alignment of laws. We should take our time and do a test run of some of those smuggled clauses and amend them before we en corporate them into the new laws of our country.