Opinion / Columnist
'ZEC needs to be an independent Commission'
26 Feb 2017 at 14:26hrs | Views
HON. SEN. CARTER: Thank you Mr. President of the Senate for the opportunity to speak on the motion. As outlined in the motion the holding of a transparent free and fair election depends on the integrity of the voters' roll as well as an enabling environment. I would like to focus on these two things, integrity and the enabling environment. Firstly the integrity of ZEC, for the people to trust the voters' roll, they need to trust ZEC, can we trust ZEC? For the people of Zimbabwe to trust ZEC, several things should have been done already to build that trust.
The first one has been mentioned already but I will mention it again. The Government should have aligned all electoral laws with the Constitution of Zimbabwe and they have not done this. Why would they choose not to do this? It is difficult for anyone to understand the reason. These issues were not addressed, the process of voter registration, voter education, compilation and access to the voters' roll and the diaspora vote. Moreso the electoral court has not been reformed in line with Section 183. So, the necessary laws to empower ZEC have not been done.
Secondly, on the integrity side, ZEC needs to be an independent Commission; the lack of independence of ZEC is illustrated by the Government continuing to control the voters' roll. It is a constitutional requirement for ZEC to supply opposition parties with an electronic version of the voters' roll. The one that was used in 2013 and this, they failed to do; they said the computer is broken. This has been the answer for four years. There is a court order saying the 2013 roll must be supplied as soon as the Registrar General's computer equipment is working. ZEC clearly has access to the 2013 electronic roll because it has been used in bi-elections and the 2013 has been supplied for constituencies where bi-elections has been held.
An application by civil society for the current electronic voters' roll and that will be the 2013 roll as well as the bi-elections updates got the response that it would be supplied as soon as possible and everybody's hopes went up, but that never happened. ZEC is controlled by a former Major in the Zimbabwe National Army Captain Utoile Silaigwana. He has admitted to withholding the 2013 roll on orders from somewhere. It will not be possible to properly order the 2018 role unless the 2013 roll is made available for comparison. When you ask ZEC for the 2013 roll…
HON. SEN. MAVHUNGA: On a point of order Mr. President of the Senate.
THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: What is your point of order?
HON. SEN. MAVHUNGA: The Hon. Senator is reading.
HON. SEN. CARTER: I am referring to notes.
THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: Go on.
HON. SEN. CARTER: Thank you. So, when you ask ZEC for the 2013 voters' roll they will direct you to the Registrar General and when you ask the Registrar-General for the 2013 voters' roll he says he has nothing to do with registration anymore. Therefore, control of the voters' roll is at the core of the control that is needed by Government. So, Government is not following the law in producing the voters' roll and when a Government does not follow its own law then public trust collapses. So, the independence of ZEC is a crucial thing and I need to illustrate it with one more example. It is about the biometric voters' roll. So, the UNDP, as you have heard mentioned, agreed to provide technical services around the Biometric Voters' Roll. They also agreed to pay for the procurement of the equipment and a Procurement Equipment Committee was set up consisting of five people from UNDP and four from ZEC, led by Captain Silaigwana. Once the tenders came in for evaluation, Government, through ZEC realised that they could not control the tender process because there were more UNDP people on the committee. So, the only way to keep control therefore, was to abandon the relationship with UNDP.
HON. SEN. CHIPANGA: Is that a fact or opinion that Government realised that they had no control?
HON. SEN. CARTER: As far as I know, it is factual Mr. President, but the point is that we have been informed that they have abandoned the UNDP. Is that a fact or opinion? How do we verify that? However, the fact, I am told, is that they have abandoned UNDP. So, Government will now take control of the BVR and roll it out. This is not a fact but I understand that it will be through the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. I only say that because I have heard that, so if it is not true, we can discuss that but if it is true - because there is no other way they can do it, then this is another contradiction of ZECs independence. So, the independence of ZEC has totally collapsed into a branch of Government.
Talking further about the integrity, as we have already heard, ZEC should be well funded but I see in the budget $9.7 million allocated to ZEC. $6 million of that amount is for employment and $3.6 million is for operations, leaving $100,000 for capital. So there is no money for funding the BVR. When Government went into this relationship with UNDP, it was meant to put in $17 million. Where will the money for the budget come from? I am afraid that the lack of funding and budgetary money that has been allocated again undermines the integrity and trust that people have for ZEC. There are three more requirements needed to build the integrity of ZEC. They should adhere to regional principles of voter registration, voting and results management. They should be involved in continuous voter education and they should extend the right to vote to all eligible citizens. But because ZEC lacks independence, integrity, transparency and funding, it is fatally flawed and unable to adhere to these regional principles.
I will now move on to the environment. As I outlined in the beginning, the holding of a transparent, free and fair election depends on the integrity of the voters roll and the enabling environment. Allow me to read a few lines from this report. This report is from the Counselling Services Unit and is referring to the political violence that happened in January this year. Government and ZEC should have zero tolerance of political violence. In January this year CSU reported that; there continues to be reports of politically motivated attacks on opposition supporters in both rural and urban constituencies. In all the cases in January, ZANU-PF supporters were alleged to be the main perpetrators. A worrying aspect of the ZANU-PF instigated political violence is that the ZRP officers refused to assist the victims. On 19th January, 2017 two days before the by election of the Bikita West House of Assembly seat, the NCA candidate was attacked by armed ZANU-PF supporters and left for dead. Now that the ZRP know that ZEC has issued a statement, are they taking any action against these blatant violations of electoral regulations? My point is, it is often difficult to know who did it but ZEC should have stood up and condemned it. That is the main point I am trying to make.
The second part on environment is equitable media coverage which also has been mentioned and is very clear that there is no access to media coverage for all political parties. It is just obvious that it is the case but ZEC remains silent. Before any by-election, it should be speaking out on that matter but it is not speaking out. So, in no sense can anyone claim that we have an enabling media environment. It is simply not true.
Now, moving on to election observers, a framework for long term election observation should be established. If we want Foreign Direct Investment to come into this country, it starts with bringing in people to see how we operate, see our elections and if everything works before they say yes, we trust this process. That will encourage investment, but if we keep people out and we have already been told that unfriendly countries will not be invited- I presume they were referring to America and the European Union. You are restricting them so they will not be keen to invest. It is as if there is something to hide and this is the opposite of an enabling observer environment. On these three issues, it is simple to see that we lack the enabling environment that is necessary.
In conclusion therefore, we are left with a situation where ZEC is clearly unable to deliver a free and fair election. ZEC is a State captured institution which will not allow the necessary reforms required and as a country, we are imprisoning ourselves. I thank you Mr. President.
http://www.parlzim.gov.zw/senate-hansard/senate-hansard-22-february-2017-vol-26-n-no-32
The first one has been mentioned already but I will mention it again. The Government should have aligned all electoral laws with the Constitution of Zimbabwe and they have not done this. Why would they choose not to do this? It is difficult for anyone to understand the reason. These issues were not addressed, the process of voter registration, voter education, compilation and access to the voters' roll and the diaspora vote. Moreso the electoral court has not been reformed in line with Section 183. So, the necessary laws to empower ZEC have not been done.
Secondly, on the integrity side, ZEC needs to be an independent Commission; the lack of independence of ZEC is illustrated by the Government continuing to control the voters' roll. It is a constitutional requirement for ZEC to supply opposition parties with an electronic version of the voters' roll. The one that was used in 2013 and this, they failed to do; they said the computer is broken. This has been the answer for four years. There is a court order saying the 2013 roll must be supplied as soon as the Registrar General's computer equipment is working. ZEC clearly has access to the 2013 electronic roll because it has been used in bi-elections and the 2013 has been supplied for constituencies where bi-elections has been held.
An application by civil society for the current electronic voters' roll and that will be the 2013 roll as well as the bi-elections updates got the response that it would be supplied as soon as possible and everybody's hopes went up, but that never happened. ZEC is controlled by a former Major in the Zimbabwe National Army Captain Utoile Silaigwana. He has admitted to withholding the 2013 roll on orders from somewhere. It will not be possible to properly order the 2018 role unless the 2013 roll is made available for comparison. When you ask ZEC for the 2013 roll…
HON. SEN. MAVHUNGA: On a point of order Mr. President of the Senate.
THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: What is your point of order?
HON. SEN. MAVHUNGA: The Hon. Senator is reading.
HON. SEN. CARTER: I am referring to notes.
THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: Go on.
HON. SEN. CARTER: Thank you. So, when you ask ZEC for the 2013 voters' roll they will direct you to the Registrar General and when you ask the Registrar-General for the 2013 voters' roll he says he has nothing to do with registration anymore. Therefore, control of the voters' roll is at the core of the control that is needed by Government. So, Government is not following the law in producing the voters' roll and when a Government does not follow its own law then public trust collapses. So, the independence of ZEC is a crucial thing and I need to illustrate it with one more example. It is about the biometric voters' roll. So, the UNDP, as you have heard mentioned, agreed to provide technical services around the Biometric Voters' Roll. They also agreed to pay for the procurement of the equipment and a Procurement Equipment Committee was set up consisting of five people from UNDP and four from ZEC, led by Captain Silaigwana. Once the tenders came in for evaluation, Government, through ZEC realised that they could not control the tender process because there were more UNDP people on the committee. So, the only way to keep control therefore, was to abandon the relationship with UNDP.
HON. SEN. CHIPANGA: Is that a fact or opinion that Government realised that they had no control?
HON. SEN. CARTER: As far as I know, it is factual Mr. President, but the point is that we have been informed that they have abandoned the UNDP. Is that a fact or opinion? How do we verify that? However, the fact, I am told, is that they have abandoned UNDP. So, Government will now take control of the BVR and roll it out. This is not a fact but I understand that it will be through the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. I only say that because I have heard that, so if it is not true, we can discuss that but if it is true - because there is no other way they can do it, then this is another contradiction of ZECs independence. So, the independence of ZEC has totally collapsed into a branch of Government.
Talking further about the integrity, as we have already heard, ZEC should be well funded but I see in the budget $9.7 million allocated to ZEC. $6 million of that amount is for employment and $3.6 million is for operations, leaving $100,000 for capital. So there is no money for funding the BVR. When Government went into this relationship with UNDP, it was meant to put in $17 million. Where will the money for the budget come from? I am afraid that the lack of funding and budgetary money that has been allocated again undermines the integrity and trust that people have for ZEC. There are three more requirements needed to build the integrity of ZEC. They should adhere to regional principles of voter registration, voting and results management. They should be involved in continuous voter education and they should extend the right to vote to all eligible citizens. But because ZEC lacks independence, integrity, transparency and funding, it is fatally flawed and unable to adhere to these regional principles.
I will now move on to the environment. As I outlined in the beginning, the holding of a transparent, free and fair election depends on the integrity of the voters roll and the enabling environment. Allow me to read a few lines from this report. This report is from the Counselling Services Unit and is referring to the political violence that happened in January this year. Government and ZEC should have zero tolerance of political violence. In January this year CSU reported that; there continues to be reports of politically motivated attacks on opposition supporters in both rural and urban constituencies. In all the cases in January, ZANU-PF supporters were alleged to be the main perpetrators. A worrying aspect of the ZANU-PF instigated political violence is that the ZRP officers refused to assist the victims. On 19th January, 2017 two days before the by election of the Bikita West House of Assembly seat, the NCA candidate was attacked by armed ZANU-PF supporters and left for dead. Now that the ZRP know that ZEC has issued a statement, are they taking any action against these blatant violations of electoral regulations? My point is, it is often difficult to know who did it but ZEC should have stood up and condemned it. That is the main point I am trying to make.
The second part on environment is equitable media coverage which also has been mentioned and is very clear that there is no access to media coverage for all political parties. It is just obvious that it is the case but ZEC remains silent. Before any by-election, it should be speaking out on that matter but it is not speaking out. So, in no sense can anyone claim that we have an enabling media environment. It is simply not true.
Now, moving on to election observers, a framework for long term election observation should be established. If we want Foreign Direct Investment to come into this country, it starts with bringing in people to see how we operate, see our elections and if everything works before they say yes, we trust this process. That will encourage investment, but if we keep people out and we have already been told that unfriendly countries will not be invited- I presume they were referring to America and the European Union. You are restricting them so they will not be keen to invest. It is as if there is something to hide and this is the opposite of an enabling observer environment. On these three issues, it is simple to see that we lack the enabling environment that is necessary.
In conclusion therefore, we are left with a situation where ZEC is clearly unable to deliver a free and fair election. ZEC is a State captured institution which will not allow the necessary reforms required and as a country, we are imprisoning ourselves. I thank you Mr. President.
http://www.parlzim.gov.zw/senate-hansard/senate-hansard-22-february-2017-vol-26-n-no-32
Source - Hansard
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