Zimbabwe's watershed elections headed for disputed outcome

THE Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn) has warned that the rift between political parties and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) may result in the 2018 elections being disputed.

Rindai Chipfunde Vava said it was essential for political parties and Zec to find each other and work together to ensure the country's electoral system is acceptable.

"It is imperative that Zec and the political parties maintain the level of engagement that we have witnessed over the past months to ensure that open dialogue continues as we move closer to the 2018 elections.

"The net effect of discontinuing the dialogue will be heightened tensions between the commission and political parties, which is likely to result in another disputed electoral process," she said.

The call comes after Zec chairperson Justice Rita Makarau stormed out of a meeting with political parties after accusing them of pursuing demonstrations and criticism instead of engaging her in good faith.

Makarau said it was only proper for Zec to halt engagements with political parties forthwith.

Zesn also said the call by some political parties to ditch biometric voter registration (BVR) in favour of using national identity cards on election day was retrogressive and had lots of holes which could not be plugged in the absence of a voters' roll.

"Zesn believes that using IDs without the voters' roll has gaps and inadequacies that would cause a number of administrative and logistical challenges to Zec, thereby severely inhibiting the commission's ability to deliver a credible election in 2018. Hence, the calls to do away with the voters' roll are retrogressive and will only serve to weaken rather than strengthen the electoral process in Zimbabwe," Zesn said in a statement.

The stand-off between political parties and Zec has been triggered by the perceived attempts of the Zanu PF-led government to hijack the procurement of BVR kits from the United Nations Development Programme.