Opinion / Columnist
MDC-T finally state their election reform demands - add to nothing but tinkering round the edges
23 Apr 2015 at 06:25hrs | Views
Many people on this site and others have said MDC-T (the same is true of the other two MDC factions) should not be trusted to handle the implementation of the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and democratic elections because they will mess things up. One has only to read Mr Gutu's comments to MDC-T really do not have a clue what is demanded here and if the nation was to listen to them then we will never have free elections.
Take MDC-T's two demands on ZEC for example:
"The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), should undertake a biometric national voter registration exercise that will give rise to the creation of a clean and accurate voters' roll. The voters' roll that was inherited from the Registrar - General's office by ZEC is littered with gross irregularities that include, but are not limited to, the inclusion of thousands of names of deceased people;"
Having a biometric based voters roll alone will not eliminate all the many problems the voters roll can be abused in rigging the vote. Yes the number of registered voters last time was 6 million, in impossible figure given the country's population was just over 12 million. No one knows for certain how the regime came up with this figure because the voters roll was never released. Even if all the extra voters were "deceased" the regime can still make up the number by entering the same voter a multiple times.
The Zanu PF then used the higher than expected registered voters to its advantage by allowing its supporters to use voter registration slip as proof of identity and then cast multiple votes. It is not hard to see why they cannot do the same again next time with a biometric voters roll. - "The secretariat of ZEC is largely composed of military and State security agents. This secretariat has to be completely dismantled in order to come up with a professional and unbiased secretariat that is capable of conducting a free and fair election at any given moment in time;"
Zanu PF's response on this will be to appoint party loyalists but with no military and State security background.
Will this be enough to guarantee that ZEC will from hence forth deliver free and fair elections? Hell no!
If we are to have confidence with a ZEC that will deliver free and fair elections then there will have to be far reaching democratic reforms of the commission to ensure its independence and impartiality. For example parliament should vet the suitability of commissioners and have the power to question ZEC's performance without reference to the executive branch.
Zanu PF has always failed to provide ZEC with adequate resources to carry out its statutory duties properly; many would say this was done deliberately.
There are other State Institutions like the Police and the other security organs that would require democratic reforms to stop them interfering adversely in the elections as they have done in the past. Indeed all the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA must be implemented as originally agreed.
With an overwhelming Zanu PF majority in the current parliament it is clear the party cannot be trusted to implement all the democratic reforms properly; this is why it was important that the task was done during the GNU. The only way out now is for a new body to be set up to carry out this important task. Since both Zanu PF and MDC failed to implement any reforms during the GNU it is self-evidence neither parties can be allowed to play a leading role much less have the power to veto anything.
It is important that the reforms are done properly next time and not waste time and money tinkering with a few reforms here and there and then cry foul again!
Zanu PF will happily tinker with the reforms MDC-T are demanding because the party will still have a lot of opportunities to rig the elections again if they so wish. The people of Zimbabwe have been denied their basic and fundamental right to a meaningful free and democratic vote for the last 35 years; we must make sure that they will finally, finally exercise this right next time!
Take MDC-T's two demands on ZEC for example:
"The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), should undertake a biometric national voter registration exercise that will give rise to the creation of a clean and accurate voters' roll. The voters' roll that was inherited from the Registrar - General's office by ZEC is littered with gross irregularities that include, but are not limited to, the inclusion of thousands of names of deceased people;"
Having a biometric based voters roll alone will not eliminate all the many problems the voters roll can be abused in rigging the vote. Yes the number of registered voters last time was 6 million, in impossible figure given the country's population was just over 12 million. No one knows for certain how the regime came up with this figure because the voters roll was never released. Even if all the extra voters were "deceased" the regime can still make up the number by entering the same voter a multiple times.
The Zanu PF then used the higher than expected registered voters to its advantage by allowing its supporters to use voter registration slip as proof of identity and then cast multiple votes. It is not hard to see why they cannot do the same again next time with a biometric voters roll. - "The secretariat of ZEC is largely composed of military and State security agents. This secretariat has to be completely dismantled in order to come up with a professional and unbiased secretariat that is capable of conducting a free and fair election at any given moment in time;"
Zanu PF's response on this will be to appoint party loyalists but with no military and State security background.
Will this be enough to guarantee that ZEC will from hence forth deliver free and fair elections? Hell no!
If we are to have confidence with a ZEC that will deliver free and fair elections then there will have to be far reaching democratic reforms of the commission to ensure its independence and impartiality. For example parliament should vet the suitability of commissioners and have the power to question ZEC's performance without reference to the executive branch.
Zanu PF has always failed to provide ZEC with adequate resources to carry out its statutory duties properly; many would say this was done deliberately.
There are other State Institutions like the Police and the other security organs that would require democratic reforms to stop them interfering adversely in the elections as they have done in the past. Indeed all the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA must be implemented as originally agreed.
With an overwhelming Zanu PF majority in the current parliament it is clear the party cannot be trusted to implement all the democratic reforms properly; this is why it was important that the task was done during the GNU. The only way out now is for a new body to be set up to carry out this important task. Since both Zanu PF and MDC failed to implement any reforms during the GNU it is self-evidence neither parties can be allowed to play a leading role much less have the power to veto anything.
It is important that the reforms are done properly next time and not waste time and money tinkering with a few reforms here and there and then cry foul again!
Zanu PF will happily tinker with the reforms MDC-T are demanding because the party will still have a lot of opportunities to rig the elections again if they so wish. The people of Zimbabwe have been denied their basic and fundamental right to a meaningful free and democratic vote for the last 35 years; we must make sure that they will finally, finally exercise this right next time!
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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