MDC position on electoral reforms

INTRODUCTION

Zimbabwe has some of the finest electoral laws in Africa sufficient to ensure a free, fair and credible election.

These laws are in conformity with the SADC Protocol and African Union guidelines on free and fair elections. However, three years after the promulgation of the new constitution, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and Government have only implemented these laws selectively, disregarding that Zimbabwe is less than eighteen months away from the next election.

This could potentially lead to another contested election.

Zimbabwe has several laws that have a bearing on elections which require harmonisation, and these are the Constitution, Acts of Parliament and some Statutory Instruments. The electoral reforms agenda is focused on broad areas which include administration, implementation and functionality.

ELECTORAL PROVISIONS THAT REQUIRE IMPLEMENTATION AND ALIGNMENT

1. Protection of the right of every eligible citizen to vote

The Bill of Rights and Section 155 of the Constitution, clearly articulate the right of every eligible citizen above the age of 18 to vote and participate in all elections and referendums. It is therefore in this vein that ZEC through extensive stakeholder consultations set up appropriate measures to prevent disfranchising eligible voters, particularly, Diaspora, the hospitalised, uniformed forces or other officials on duty on polling day. Zimbabwe should take leaf from other SADC countries where its diaspora is allowed to register and vote at their respective embassies. Zimbabweans in the diaspora would register electronically and appear physically at the embassies for confirmation and on voting day. However it is important that stringent measures should be put in place to avoid chaos and opportunistic electoral fraud, for instance, as in the case where Special Votes dramatically increased from 3,000 in 2008 to 64,000 in 2013 elections.

2. De-politicisation and Independence of (ZEC)

a) ZEC as an institution is acutely ZANU PF entrenched particularly at operational and management levels. Such officials must be removed and replaced by competent, non-partisan and proficient personnel. Section 235 of the Constitution and Section 11 of the Electoral Act make provisions for the impartial conduct and professionalism of the Commission staff which should be evoked whenever there is clear evidence of partisanship and unprofessional conduct.

b) ZEC together with all other independent institutions are accountable to Parliament and should not to be controlled or directed by anyone else. Parliament should have the ultimate oversight role over ZEC and not the Ministry of Justice or any other entity. ZEC should have its own Accounting Authority status and receive funding directly from Treasury and not through some vote in the Ministry of Justice.

3. POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT

a) POSA and AIPA must be repealed.

These have contradictory implications to the Constitution and Electoral Act as they impede on the fundamental freedoms and rights of assembly and association, access to information, expression and media freedom.

b) ZEC should establish an inclusive monitoring framework against malpractices in the political environment.

ZEC is compelled to immediately put in place appropriate systems and a monitoring framework to identify incidents of electoral violence, intimidation, vote buying, and other malpractices as prescribed in Article 156 (c) (i) of the Constitution. This should be implemented collectively with the Human Rights Commission, Zimbabwe Republic Police, Parliament, Judiciary, Gender Commission and the Media Commission, where punitive measures will also be instituted.

4. VOTER REGISTRATION.

a) The General Laws Amendment Act of 2016 contradicts the Constitution by bringing back the Registrar General of Voters, who is a Civil servant, to assume the responsibility of registering voters and maintaining custody of the voters roll. The Act should be amended so that it is in conformity with the Constitution, and ensure that the only role of the Registrar General should be confined to Registry verification purposes on the eligibility of some voters as per request.

b) Zimbabwe is currently incapacitated to implement an effective and efficient Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) system, and should focus on a simple electronic voter registration system as espoused in the General Laws Amendment Act of 2016.

The MDC lists the following reasons for objecting to the implementation of BVR:

 i. Inadequate stakeholder consultations, and lack of clarity or consensus regarding the type of BVR system to be implemented. Currently the proposed BVR system is in the tendering stage yet political stakeholders were not given the opportunity to input on the desired specifications of the system.

 ii. Lack of transparency and non-inclusive tendering and procurement processes.

 iii. The proposed roadmap and the timelines stated by ZEC to execute BVR are inadequate and do not allow for comprehensive voter education and systems testing, which could potentially disfranchise many voters and affect the smooth running of elections.

 iv. BVR is prone to many technical shortcomings ranging from network infrastructure / connectivity challenges, reliable national power supply, security and data storage.

 v. BVR is a much more demanding and time consuming process, and ZEC has been on record for failing to manage the long queues during the 2013 mobile voter registration process. Accordingly, the MDC does not have much confidence that ZEC will be able to execute this process with expedience within the limited time frame.

 vi. Furthermore, due to these challenges, the numbers of people turned away from voting is likely to increase immensely from the 2013 harmonised elections figure of over 302,000.

 vii. Lack of confidence and mistrust between ZEC and political stakeholders, brings into question issues on data security and storage as well as password encryption.

c) The MDC recommends simply the use of Electronic voter registration which is proposed in the General Laws Amendment Act of 2016.

This is simpler and less technical compared to BVR.

· Electronic voter registration registers voters offline using computers and then later upload the data online to a central server. Corrections, deletions and additions are made real-time compared to the previously used manual registration system which resulted in voter registration slips because of inadequate time to upload the data.

d) Voter registration should be universal and equally accessible to all eligible citizens

Voter registration centers should be located within specified radii and short walking distances in all districts throughout the country. The service should be efficient. This would prevent the 2013 skewed mobile voter registration process where urban centers were characterized by long queues, lethargic service and few registration officials, whilst in rural areas the process was more efficient and a one-stop shop with more Voter Registration officials.

5. VOTERS ROLL

a) The electronic copies of the voters roll should be in an analyzable format

Notwithstanding Section 21 (7)(i) of the Electoral Act which demands that the voters roll should be temper proof, ZEC should make every effort to ensure that the electronic copies of the roll are in an analyzable format to enable stakeholders to ascertain accuracy and scrutiny.

b) The time period for the issuance of the voters roll to contesting candidates should be defined

Instead of providing for the voters roll to be availed to contesting candidates ‘within a reasonable time', Section 21(6) of the Electoral Act should further define the time frame for the issuance to avoid the 2013 scenario where the voters roll was only availed on the eve of the July 31st 2013 elections. The MDC recommends a time frame of not more than 20 days after the nomination court sitting to allow for further scrutiny and allowance for appeals.

c) The use of voter registration slips should be abolished

Section 26A of the Electoral Acts demands that voter registration should close 12 days after nomination day. This therefore provides for adequate allowance for new Registrants to be added on the voters roll. More over the electronic voter registration system provides for real-time data input

6. VOTER EDUCATION

a) Notwithstanding Section 40D of the Electoral Act regarding the commencement of voter education after Elections Proclamation, the MDC recommends that ZEC ensures the process is conducted throughout the electoral cycle. Furthermore, the introduction of Polling Station Based voting and voter re-registration calls for an urgent need to commence the exercise immediately to enable adherence to the time limit for 2018 elections.

b) ZEC should beef up its capacity to conduct voter education, by relaxing its stringent requirements and open more space for civic organizations to assist. Cognisant of the limited time frame and the scope of voter education required, clearly ZEC does not have the sufficient financial and human resources capacity to reach out to over 6million potential voters.

c) In the spirit of adult universal suffrage, ZEC should ensure sufficient braille material to cater for the approximately 800,000 visually impaired people in the country. Provisions should also be made for sign language interpreters, the visually and physically challenged persons.

7. Election Observers

a) The Observers Accreditation Committee should be reviewed and comprise of independent persons only. The presence of Ministerial and Office of the President and Cabinet representatives impedes on the impartiality of the process.

b) Accreditation should be done well before polling day to enable the observers to gain a full appreciation and a comprehensive review of ‘any other issue concerning the essential freedom and fairness of the elections' as mandated by Section 40G (d)(vi) of the constitution. This is important because elections are a process and not an event, hence the pre-elections phase is detrimental to the final elections outcome.

c) De-centralise accreditation centers to avoid disenfranchising some prospective local observers who cannot afford to travel long distances. The 2013 elections had only three Accreditation Centers throughout the country, that is, in Harare, Masvingo and Bulawayo.

8. There should be a clear criteria for identifying eligible persons that require assistance to vote

In enhancing accountability and credibility of assisted voters as espoused in Section 59 of the Electoral Act, the Elections Management Body together with relevant stakeholders should set the criteria for identifying legitimate potential voters who require assistance. This would mitigate against voters who falsely claim that they require assistance as in 2013 elections where a highly unusual figure of 206,901 people were assisted to vote.

9. Displaying of all election results outside polling stations

Subject to Section 64 (1) (d) of the Electoral Act, all election results should be displayed outside the polling station for the public to inspect and record. These results should include, inter alia, the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government results. In 2013 elections, for some reason most polling stations did not display the Presidential elections results as stipulated.

10. ZEC should immediately set an inclusive media monitoring framework to ensure fair and balanced media coverage for all political players.

Section 160 of the Electoral Act and Section 155 mandates ZEC to ensure fair and equal media coverage and access for all contesting parties and candidates. This could be effected by setting up an inclusive media monitoring framework with regulatory authorities that include The Media Commission, Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe, Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe, Media Institute of Southern Africa and Zimbabwe Union of Journalists. These institutions should not only submit post-election reports, but make reports throughout the electoral cycle.

11. Election dates must be set by the law and not by the President's unilateral proclamation

The constitution on Section 158 provides an indication on the timing of elections. This provision could further be used by the Constitutional Court as a guide to set election dates. This would mitigate against the arbitrary proclamation of election dates and the abuse of the Presidential powers as in the 2013 elections.

12. Electoral court judges should be reconstituted

Section 183 of the constitution provides that judges should not be appointed in more than one court, hence the electoral court should be reconstituted to enable adherence to this requirement.

13. Electoral laws should be universally applied by electoral Elections officials

ZEC officials at management and functional levels should interpret electoral laws objectively and apply them in a universal and impartial manner. This mitigates against illegally disfranchising potential voters, unfair disqualification of prospective candidates and polling agents, which compromise the fairness and credibility of elections