News / National
Zec in preps for 2023 elections
27 Aug 2019 at 07:37hrs | Views
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) is in the process of fine tuning the process of cleaning up the voters' roll in preparation for the 2023 elections.
In an interview in Bulawayo recently, Zec chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba, said by-elections were making it easy for the commission to clean the voters' roll.
"The by-elections actually give us an opportunity to clean the voter's rolls for the constituencies or wards where they are held. As you know we're now polling station specific.
"We have statistics on hand and we're actually fine tuning our process of cleaning up the voters' roll," said Justice Chigumba.
She said during the by-elections, Zec gets the opportunity to remove voters who have moved to other areas or have died. Zec has also introduced a system at all the collation centres where voters can check on the voters roll whether they know their polling stations.
"This is something which we were not doing in the past but we've used it in the last two by-elections and it has helped a lot with a number of people who are redirected after going to the wrong polling stations," said Justice Chigumba.
She said although the commission is not bound to follow recommendations, it was using them to introspect and see how it can improve its systems.
"We have recommendations from domestic, regional and international observers and they have been brought together in one document and we forwarded them to the inter-ministerial taskforce, which is headed by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi and deputised by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Dr Sibusiso Moyo," Justice Chigumba said.
"In line with our mandate and in terms of the constitution, we have summarised all the recommendations and separately set forth those recommendations that we feel must be followed no matter where they came from. The inter-ministerial task force is now seized with these recommendations. I understand that there's an Omnibus Bill, which will encompass not only electoral law reforms but also political and other reforms."
Justice Chigumba said Zec was in the process of setting up and publishing the roadmap and the time frames for electoral law reforms as well as delimitation of constituency boundaries.
She urged Zimbabweans to register to vote so that they're not affected by constituency boundaries when the delimitation exercise is complete.
In an interview in Bulawayo recently, Zec chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba, said by-elections were making it easy for the commission to clean the voters' roll.
"The by-elections actually give us an opportunity to clean the voter's rolls for the constituencies or wards where they are held. As you know we're now polling station specific.
"We have statistics on hand and we're actually fine tuning our process of cleaning up the voters' roll," said Justice Chigumba.
She said during the by-elections, Zec gets the opportunity to remove voters who have moved to other areas or have died. Zec has also introduced a system at all the collation centres where voters can check on the voters roll whether they know their polling stations.
"This is something which we were not doing in the past but we've used it in the last two by-elections and it has helped a lot with a number of people who are redirected after going to the wrong polling stations," said Justice Chigumba.
She said although the commission is not bound to follow recommendations, it was using them to introspect and see how it can improve its systems.
"We have recommendations from domestic, regional and international observers and they have been brought together in one document and we forwarded them to the inter-ministerial taskforce, which is headed by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi and deputised by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Dr Sibusiso Moyo," Justice Chigumba said.
"In line with our mandate and in terms of the constitution, we have summarised all the recommendations and separately set forth those recommendations that we feel must be followed no matter where they came from. The inter-ministerial task force is now seized with these recommendations. I understand that there's an Omnibus Bill, which will encompass not only electoral law reforms but also political and other reforms."
Justice Chigumba said Zec was in the process of setting up and publishing the roadmap and the time frames for electoral law reforms as well as delimitation of constituency boundaries.
She urged Zimbabweans to register to vote so that they're not affected by constituency boundaries when the delimitation exercise is complete.
Source - chronicle
