ZEC has a duty to prevent intimidation and rigging of by-elections

To the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission:

The Voice for Democracy warmly welcomes Vice President Mnangagwa's announcement that further amendments to the Electoral Act will bring it into line with the Constitution. The Vice President is also reported to have urged MPs to acquaint themselves with 11 Bills soon to be laid before Parliament to ensure that they conform to the Constitution. When questioned by an MP he said, "What we are doing is constitutional to the letter".

But this is rich indeed coming from a Vice President who has so recently flouted the letter of the Constitution and the Electoral Act. As audio evidence shows, he blatantly violated the Constitutional requirement that traditional leaders remain impartial and stay out of politics. He then added insult to injury by intimidating voters by threatening to "fence them out" in violation of the Electoral Act. The Former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Todd Moss, was particularly scathing about the Vice President who "openly bragged about rigging the vote."

Jacob Ngarivhume, whose party, Transform Zimbabwe, is contesting the Chiramanzu-Zibagwe by-election, has issued a strongly-worded statement (attached) criticising the Vice President. The Vice President's unconstitutional and unlawful pronouncements renew fears of intimidation and fraud being used yet again as an electoral tool. The Voice for Democracy therefore calls upon the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to implement the letter of the law.

· In terms of s.133G(c) of the Electoral Act, ZEC must call upon all political parties and candidates to publically undertake to abide by the code of conduct set out in the Fourth Schedule.

· In terms of the Fourth Schedule, every political party and candidate is required to condemn, unreservedly and publically, any violence or intimidation, avowing not to take reprisals against any person because of the way they voted.

In view of the Vice President's utterances, ZEC must call upon him to state categorically that traditional leaders will not be used unconstitutionally in a partisan role to intimidate voters.

But there is more. The Electoral Act [s.133H(1)] requires the appointment of a Special Police Liaison Officer (SPLO) for every general election and by-election to investigate politically motivated intimidation and violence. To our knowledge, this has not been done. Sub-section (2) requires the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission to establish and chair a Special Investigation Committee, which includes representatives of each political party contesting the election. Its task is to instruct the SPLO to investigate any intimidation or violence. Again, this Committee has not been established as required by law. It is ZEC's duty to ensure that this Committee is established and immediately investigates the offences committed by the Vice President.

The Voice for Democracy calls upon all national election monitoring agencies, the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, and diplomatic missions to apply for accreditation as observers for these crucial by-elections. These are, after all, the seats vacated by the Vice President and the former Vice-President of Zimbabwe. In view of their policy of engagement with the Government of Zimbabwe, we appeal to all member countries of the European Union, and the European Union itself, to apply to observe these by-elections.

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Dale Dore can be contacted at daledore@zol.co.zw