via African Commission approached over ‘compromised’ Zim election | SW Radio Africa by Alex Bell on Friday, October 25, 2013
The African Commission on Human and People’s rights has been urged to use its influence to put pressure on the ZANU PF government to address, among many other issues, the ‘compromised’ July elections.
The Commission this week opened its 54th Ordinary Session, where a delegation of civil society members, including the Zim Human Rights NGO Forum, is lobbying for action on the situation back home. In a statement to the Commission, the Forum said Wednesday that there are significant human rights and rule of law issues still unaddressed in Zimbabwe.
This includes the “compromised” election in July, which the Forum argued lacked credibility mainly “because of the lack of integrity of the voters roll.”
“The Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) and the Registrar’s General’s office failed to avail the electronic copy of the voters roll, as provided for by section 21 of the Electoral Act…it is sad that until today ZEC has not yet availed the electronic copy. The registration of new voters only compounded the already shambolic state of the voters’ roll, which was fraught with duplications, omissions and still remains in dire need of clean up,” the Forum said.
It added: “Furthermore, the elections were compromised by such disturbing electoral anomalies as the high number of voters turned away, high number of assisted voters, bussing in of people from outside constituencies particularly to urban polling stations and voter intimidation mostly in rural areas which was spearheaded by the traditional leadership. The Forum, using statistics from its member and partner organizations, recorded a total of 732 cases of harassment and intimidation during the election period.”
The Forum’s director Abel Chikomo said another critical issue at the moment is the failure by the ZANU PF government to, as of yet, align Zimbabwe’s laws with the new constitution.
“Unfortunately we haven’t realigned a lot of our laws that go against what is enshrined in the new constitution. For example POSA, which goes against the principle of freedom of assembly; AIPPA, which is against freedom of expression and the media, and the Criminal Law Act. All those laws impeach on the constitution,” Chikomo said.
He added: “The Commission should call on the government to immediately realign these laws.”
The Forum also raised other issues, include the “below standard” service delivery in most sectors such as health, education, water, power and sanitation, shortages of clean and safe water, erratic power supply and limited access to basic health care.
COMMENTS
One vexing question one has to ask is why did Mugabe appoint his own judges prior to the election?. We know why , but let us see the response from this commission.
Who should appoint judges? Who appoints judges in your assumed democracies? How do they make sure they are not Republicans or Democrats and that they are neutral and Holier than thou?
Even Tsvangirais slow typist could have finished typing the full voters roll from 31 July 2013 to date so that he also has an electronic copy. What is wrong with it and did the voters roll vote? Do not be fooled by a looser.
You dont get it Muvengwa, the names on the hardcopy voters roll are not necessarily similar to those on the electronic voters roll. You know sometimes being Zanu PF just beats me with the lack of failure to reason!
Excellent views are good for this forum. Thats DEMOCRACY NOW. Keep it up.
Why is it necessary to type the voter’s roll when the relevant section of the constitution says it must be obtained from the electoral authorities. Its needless to pretend to understand these things when you don’t and are only a Zanu activist.
Why is it that we dont have a single person writing to say he/she was turned away from voting. Why do writers continue to write on behalf of the turned away voter. If this voter was really denied the right to vote why is he not writing on his own. On another note if I have 100 farm workers staying at my Harare house and they decide to register to vote in Harare using my house address, what law are they violating, and if they ask me to carry them to Harare to vote what law am I violating, and am I rigging and did they vote twice. This voter will continue to rig the ignorant.
Mashinga, by carrying a 100 voters to go and vote you will have violated the law!