'Gono's ascent to Senate not smooth sailing'

THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has said the law governing the nomination of candidates to fill vacant seats is not clear and is open to double interpretation, a situation that is likely to lead to a dispute on the filling of such vacancies.

Zec chairperson Justice Rita Makarau said in an interview yesterday that those nominated by a political party would also have to go through a vigorous selection process involving the inivitation of objections from people in the particular province where the seat would be vacant.

Justice Makarau said that if there were objections the electoral body could not handle, it would refer them to the Constitutional Court for determination.

"I will be quite clear and say the law has not been drafted with enough clarity," she said.

"In my view, it could have been much clearer because it talks of nominating a candidate and it also talks about a party list in the same section.

"So, it gives room to double interpretation, but that is for the courts to interpret."

This means prospective candidates like former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono are not assured of taking up the vacant posts by merely being nominated by Zanu-PF as they would have to go through scrutiny by members from the province who can contest the nomination.

Dr Gono was proposed by Zanu-PF to take over the Manicaland senatorial seat which fell vacant following the death of veteran nationalist Kumbirai Kangai, while another seat fell in Mashonaland West after Edna Madzongwe was elected the President of the Senate.

The two vacancies were declared in notices in an extraordinary Government Gazette last Friday.

Justice Makarau said after declaring the two senate seats vacant the stage was now set for nomination of candidates with prerequisite qualifications.

"The next stage is to invite the political party to give us the names of qualifying persons to fill the vacant posts," said Justice Makarau. "We do not have time limits, but the law says it must be without delay. So, we will invite Zanu-PF to give us the names of the qualifying persons."

Justice Makarau said the process was long drawn out and it would involve public participation at each and every turn.

"Once the name comes, we then look at it and if the name qualifies and we are happy with it where the nomination forms have been filled we again advertise in the Government Gazette and now invite anybody, any voter to raise their objections," she said.

"The notice we published in the gazette was to inform the public that there is this vacancy when there is a candidate whom we think on the face of it meets the qualifications we will again advertise and wait for the public to make objections. If there are no objections we again advertise to tell them that we have now filled the vacancy."

Justice Makarau said the whole process would be guided by the electoral law.

"The law says we invite the party to nominate a person, if they want to nominate somebody on the party list, it's entirely up to them and if they want to nominate somebody who is outside the party list again we will take it, but if some people want to object to that, when we get to the procedure for objections, let a voter in that province object and say why this one and not that one," she said.

"That is not for us as an EMB (Electoral Management Board) we are simply the referee. We are simply following the law as it is laid down and as we understand it."

Dr Gono's endorsement has already raised debate, with some saying he is not qualified because his name does not appear on the original party list for Manicaland. The original party list indicated that former MP Shadreck Chipanga was supposed to replace Kangai.

The Electoral Amendment Bill outlines how the vacant parliamentary seats are supposed to be filled following the expiry of the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measrues) Act in December last year which were used to conduct last year's harmonised elections. Section 15 of the Bill empowers a party holding a seat in respect of party-list members to nominate a qualified person to fill a vacancy that may have occurred.

The party list has members that a political party would have submitted to Zec to represent it in a given province ahead of the elections and are listed in terms of preferences.