via ZEC refuses to take questions on 2013 poll | SW Radio Africa by Mthulisi Mathuthu on Wednesday, March 19, 2014
A three day conference called by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to review the disputed 2013 polls opened in Harare Wednesday, but officials from the electoral body said they will not be taking any questions.
Chairperson Justice Rita Makarau reportedly told her subordinates not to answer any questions on last year’s election in which ZEC announced President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party winners. SW Radio Africa correspondent Simon Muchemwa said a senior ZEC official, Joyce Kazembe, confirmed to him that they will not be taking questions for the rest of the conference. ‘Kazembe said ZEC officials are going to be by standers just listening to complaints and criticism,’ said Muchemwa.
The audience, who included representatives from various civil society groups and journalists, were taken aback by the ban on questions. Muchemwa said many people expected ‘constructive and frank exchanges between the ZEC officials and the audience.’ Announcing the conference last week ZEC said the event’s purpose was to discuss the lessons learnt and how to improve the conduct of the elections. Chief elections officer Lovemore Sekeramayi was quoted saying the commission intended to ‘sit down with the stakeholders and review’ the elections.
Muchemwa said out of all the speakers, who included Makarau and Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, it was only the National Constitutional Assembly leader Lovemore Madhuku who took questions. Madhuku said, among other things, it was illegal for ZEC to deny people in the Diaspora the right to vote.
The refusal to answer questions is not surprising as ZEC has been criticized globally for the way it has handled polls, including the July 31st election.
Despite the African Union endorsing the election as ‘free, honest and credible’ few believe that Mugabe won the poll. ZEC and Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede have still not made public the electronic copy of the voters roll that was used, as required by law. Last year Makarau told ZAPU leader Dumiso Dabengwa that the electronic copy will not be available anytime soon.
Meanwhile civil society in Malawi is calling for more vigilance ahead of the May election which the opposition fear could be rigged because of the involvement of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission .
Three weeks ago the Malawian Electoral Commission (MEC) confirmed that it is consulting the discredited ZEC, sparking an outcry from activists and opposition parties. It was reported that the influential Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace said it was ‘on the alert’ because of MEC’s association with ZEC.
This week Malawi Watch Executive Director Billy Banda said there is tension in the country because of a rumored high presence of Zimbabweans, believed to be officials from ZEC. Speaking on SW Radio Africa’s Cutting Edge programme Banda said speculation is rife that dozens of ZEC officials are in the country and are living luxuriously at the expense of the tax payer. He called for local and international observer missions to be vigilant because there are fears that the May 20th polls will be rigged in favour of President Joyce Banda.
The concerns of the Malawian opposition are compounded by the fact Banda is one of the African leaders who publicly congratulated Mugabe for ‘winning’ the July 31st poll.
COMMENTS
The gost of elections past. Zec is afraid ,really afraid.
Hey, when will this man, who imposed himself as the president mugabe die, can someone poison or just shoot this man once and for all. With now more than 6 million Zimbabweans living outside Zimbabwe who are eligible to vote denied to vote, whats this idiotic, the population of Zimbos outside is enough to determine the president, This man who calls himself mugabe is inhuman, cruelty is what he is, kuzoti ka hure kake gire ma1 chaiwo, ini ndazvishaira pazvo izvi. Can someone help me the importance of mugabesh in our home land.
Why refuse to take questions if there in nothing to hide? This is as ridiculous as it gets. The electronic copy that they steadfastly refuse to release holds all the answers. Havana nyadzi Vanhu ava
“The Machines are not available to create an Electronic Copy”, didn’t you get it.
Please don’t doubt ZEC’s honesty, when they don’t have “The Machines”, to make a copy.
Hell, I burn CD’s and DVD’s daily, GB after GB if necessary on a $500 desktop, ha! ha!
My “Machine” does it just fine, but then I don’t have Chinese Made “Nikuv Discs”, from Israel, do I!
Oops!
zimbos are amazing,they think Zanu organies elections to be voted out!!who would??
What the hell are you talking about?
ZEC is guilty. They are guilty before Almighty God and they are guilty before the Zimbabwean people. Rita Makarau is a disgrace. I think MT is ruing the day he exonerated ZEC from being complicit. ZEC are totally complicit. 100% complicit. The gavel from heaven has already fallen on those elections and the verdict is GUILTY! Judgment is knocking at the door. I would suggest that repentance would be a good way to go and we pray that the Lord Himself will blow the lid on that whole July 31st issue. Guess who was really in charge of that whole debacle. The devil in person. The father of all lies is the devil. The Lord said so and so it is. And the wages of sin is death. To him who has ears let him hear!
An open letter to ZEC .People really know what transpired on the “July31 2013 election ,this was not Tsvangirai who was rigged , but the entire mass of ZIMBABWEANS. Rita Makarau does u not have relatives who are Suffering in Zimbabwe , if u knows the pain of giving birth, u could not connive In this embarrassment of election rigging how do u feel to cheat armless & harmless people of Zimbabwe. Time will tell.Remember when a bird builts it’s nest close to a hive of wasps it needs protection .What will happen when those wasp vacates the nest , think of it .
Use spell-checker, just highlight the word that is underlined with red, right click, and you’ll get the correct spelling above.
Please, as Zimbabweans we are proud of having Africa’s highest literacy rate, some 87% –
Don’t please let us down, Rocks tone?
its now water under the bridge lets build on those mistakes
The corruption under this leadership that has lasted almost 35 years must be addressed, or it will continue in the future no matter leadership change or not. Evil must be rooted out if positive change is to occur.
What if I stole your house you worked to build, then said “that’s water under the bridge, so let’s forget the past and just move forward”, then I’d have a house and your possessions, and you’d be sleeping in the bush with nothing. Explain what would be right about that course of action. Sounds to me like a valid parallel to the harmonized polling of 2013.
God does not forget those who do not repent… time does not forgive. Those who die in their sins face true justice… no excuses, no bought witnesses, no biased magistrate, no twisted rulings, no bail, no delayed rulings, no overturning… true and perfect justice by the very One who made us.
Narrow is the way… few enter… so who among us will walk the path..?
I used to respect Rita until the time that she revealed that she was part of the evil Zanu Pf system.
Why cant these ZEC Gukurahundis take a lead from the Indipendent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa.
The registration of voters has been so open and transparent and well publised and everything is according to the law. The voters roll is Open for public scrutiny.
Everything is splashed out there for the public to see. But for Gukurahundis, everything is a secret. Gukurahundi is swept under the carpet; electoral processes are secretive; Murambtswina is swept under the carpet; alection violence and abductions are swept under the carpet!!
Shame, shame ,shame…
Zimbabweans should never allow anyone at ZEC today to ever run elections from Rita to Office Cleaners.
All those people who r criticising Tsvangirai, by loosing the election I think they need to open their minds now and ask themselves why ZEC is refusing to take questions. Comrades I think I told u before that the problem of election doesn’t lay with the leadership it is the current system,this system does favour zanu, u can change the leadership nearly everyday no one will beat this system. Now they r taking/introduce it in Malawi, just wait and see. The only solution to our problem you mighty deny this and its going to be the hard way is to be armed again against this evil.
Mujibha
Similarly, all those who accuse the Mthwakazi people for dissidents and plotting to topple Mugabe’s 1980 government should also have an open mind and ask themselves why ZANU PF never wants to discuss the gukurahundi issue; why people who even attempt prayer meetings over this issue are arrested, including artists!!
Mujiba, we all know Morgan Tsvangirai did not loose the election fairly. He was cheated! All the voters were cheated and robbed! The problem is how he allowed them to cheat him and how he reacted to the cheating. How do you take part in an election where you have not seen the voters’ role and you do not know all the polling stations? He could have called all his sopporters onto the streets or to ZEC’s to demand the voters’ role and final list of all the polling stations. He should have marched with the masses.
With such kind of behaviour from ZEC, those (Morgan Tsvangirai included ) who think Zimbabwe will see better governance through elections organised by ZEC are either daydreaming or mentally incapacited. They need psychiatric help.
This Makararwa ladie is full of what will you do to me ,i am telling you guys,she is even afraid to speak out of what happened during the elections