MDC-T stalling electoral amendments

by Staff reporter

2012 June 17 16:03:34 | 1232 Views

HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC is stalling amendments to the law governing elections, coalition government partners say.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Amendment Bill is now gathering dust in Parliament because of the MDC's flip -flopping, Zanu-PF and the splinter MDC formation allege.

Justice and Legal Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa told a recent public discussion that the MDC had earlier agreed to support the bill, only to shoot the proposed amendments in Parliament.

"We have agreed on the changes and all parties signed but the MDC is changing goal posts, arguing that we will be endangering the people if we run an election using a polling station-based roll," said Chinamasa.

"It is the only amendment that Zanu PF brought to the electoral act and we will stick to it. Either we pass the law as amended with the polling station-based clause or we revert to the old law," Chinamasa said.

Under the polling station-based system a voter will only vote at the polling station at which his or her name appears on the voters' roll.

This is significantly different from the present system whereby voters can vote at any polling station within the ward.

Industry minister Welshman Ncube, leader of a breakaway MDC formation which forms part of the fragile coalition government, supported Chinamasa's claims.

"It is true that we negotiated the bill and agreed to the changes including the clause on polling station-based system," said Ncube, a former University of Zimbabwe law professor.

"It was an amendment brought by Zanu PF. We as the other parties brought our own amendments and we all signed but then the MDC seems to have had a change of heart and are now saying we should remove the polling station-based clause," said Ncube.

He described the clause as a "deal-breaker that will see us revert to the old electoral law minus amendments".

Amendments

Source: Daily News