via By-elections illegal as ZEC has no voters’ roll – The Zimbabwean 11 February 2015
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has been rapped for discrediting the 27 March by-elections to fill vacancies left by former vice president, Joice Mujuru and her successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
ZEC came under fire for refusing to provide the MDC-T with the electronic voters’ roll, arguing that it had not yet started preparing its own register. This follows the transfer of the mandate to manage the voters’ roll from the Registrar General’s office to ZEC under the new constitution.
Justice Mavedzenge, a constitutional law expert who has also applied to the Constitutional Court to have the voters’ roll made public, said the commission’s denial prejudiced the legitimacy of the by-elections.
“This a very clear admission by ZEC that they are failing to fulfil their constitutional duties and one wonders what exactly they are doing using tax payers and donor funds. Legally this is unacceptable. ZEC cannot expect to escape its constitutional responsibilities by giving a lame excuse such as this,” said Mavedzenge.
“By giving such an excuse, ZEC has shamelessly accepted that these by elections will be held in a manner that falls short of the constitutional standards. There is no doubt they are being organised in a very illegal manner and their outcomes will not pass the constitutional muster if challenged in court,” he added.
Opposition parties failed to access the electronic voters’ roll during the 2013 general elections and observer teams from SADC and the African Union (AU) expressed concern over this. For the past 18 months ZEC has dodged demands to publicise the roll, arguing that its computers were down.
The chairperson, Rita Makarau told The Zimbabwean that she could not comment on the matter since MDC-T had lodged a court application challenging the legitimacy of the holding of the by-elections.
COMMENTS
over the last 20 years, there have been many tricks that zanu pf has used to manipulate elections.
the favoured trick of the moment is to deny access to the voters roll and thereby disenfranchise many.
the combined opposition parties need to develop a single unitary strategy to deal with this chicanery.
this should not be too difficult even for a totally fragmented opposition.
since under the present no-voter roll system, only zanu pf ever wins, it makes sense for all opposition parties to agree to totally boycott all elections and by-elections completely unless there is an electronic voters roll available at least 30 days in advance.
we should not deceive ourselves that zanu pf will then not go ahead with elections and increase their parliamentary majority.
but they will face ever decreasing legitimacy with each and every subsequent election.
the opposition will then also begin to find further common strategies to weaken the illegitimate zanu pf.
non-participation may seem like a weak strategy, but it has worked for many societies in a slow but powerful manner. moreover since the opposition is at present weak and divided, it is a realistic strategy too.