News / National
Chigumba says, 'Consensus with political parties pointless'
09 Jul 2018 at 15:51hrs | Views
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) says it is considering abandoning the consensus building process with political parties as the process is proving futile.
ZEC Chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba also updated the media that 10 895 polling stations have been established for the 2018 elections and revealed her commission will stick to the letter and spirit of the law that mandated it.
The electoral mother body said it had gone beyond its constitutionally ascribed role of designing, printing and distributing ballot papers in good faith inviting political parties to observe the printing process of the ballot, but hence forth it would deliberate on whether it is necessary to continue seeking consensus with aggrieved parties outside the confines of the law.
"ZEC has the exclusive constitutional obligation to design, print, safeguard and distribute ballot paper.
"There is no legal framework that allows some of these requests or demand by political parties. Different political parties want different things and quite evidently we have failed to build consensus so far we are now debating whether we continue the consensus-building exercise or just stick to the letter and spirit of the law," said Justice Chigumba.
A question was raised on allegations of people receiving messages from political parties requesting for votes, to which ZEC said it wasn't responsible for giving political parties' people's contacts.
ZEC says 830 election observers have been accredited so far.
ZEC Chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba also updated the media that 10 895 polling stations have been established for the 2018 elections and revealed her commission will stick to the letter and spirit of the law that mandated it.
The electoral mother body said it had gone beyond its constitutionally ascribed role of designing, printing and distributing ballot papers in good faith inviting political parties to observe the printing process of the ballot, but hence forth it would deliberate on whether it is necessary to continue seeking consensus with aggrieved parties outside the confines of the law.
"There is no legal framework that allows some of these requests or demand by political parties. Different political parties want different things and quite evidently we have failed to build consensus so far we are now debating whether we continue the consensus-building exercise or just stick to the letter and spirit of the law," said Justice Chigumba.
A question was raised on allegations of people receiving messages from political parties requesting for votes, to which ZEC said it wasn't responsible for giving political parties' people's contacts.
ZEC says 830 election observers have been accredited so far.
Source - zbc
