Opinion / Columnist
ZEC's long road to BVR success
07 Feb 2018 at 14:14hrs | Views
These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
This was the opening of the 1980s popular TV Series StarTrek, it was revolutionary and ground-breaking in exposing people to how far technology can be used for human development.
The StarTrek opening line can also be used to loosely describe the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's (ZEC) mandate when they embarked on a journey to create a new voters roll using cutting edge technology- The Bio-Metric Voter Registration (BVR) process.
The journey has been a long one but finally it is about to come to an end on 8 February when the mop-up exercise is scheduled to conclude and as at 5 February ZEC had recorded 5,235,854 registered voters.
Let us take a look at some of the troubling stumbling blocks that bedevilled the program. Some of them were genuine concerns but most were simply noises from the usual suspects; opposition political parties and Civic Society Organisations (CSOs) who took this as an opportunity to gain sympathy and funding from their foreign backers.
After initially supporting the idea of a BVR system, the opposition outfit under the banner of the National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA) started to oppose the idea when Government said it would fully fund the programme. NERA even organised a demonstration on 22 March 2017 calling for the resignation of the then ZEC chairperson, Justice Rita Makarau and demanded that the programme be funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
NERA was left with an egg on its face when the UN country Representative, Bishow Parajuli, threw his weight behind the Laxton Group, who had won the tender to supply BVR machinery and Government sponsoring the whole program.
"It is the responsibility of Governments the world over to fund electoral activities. Development partners might just come in to assist. We are pleased with the company providing the BVR kits. It was selected from a fair and transparent process," said Mr Parajuli. Government pledged US$15 million to the BVR program and to date have honoured its commitment.
NERA continued on their ill-fated crusade to have the head of ZEC, Makarau, fired from her post insisting that she was partisan and could not be an impartial referee in any election. Justice Makarau finally heeded the call from the cry-baby opposition outfits and resigned in January 2018 and was replaced by Justice Priscilla Chigumba.
Makarau's resignation was not a capitulation to the misplaced pressure coming from the opposition but a visionary decision by the new President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to remove a future obstacle and deprive the opposition of a reason to discredit the upcoming General Elections.
Chigumba's appointment was widely welcomed and this ensures that ZEC's credibility in as far as its head was concerned become a non-issue.
"As the MDC, we welcome the new ZEC chairperson who is a distinguished lawyer and brings a wealth of experience as a judge. A lot is expected of her because. She has a huge task of delivering credible, free and fair elections," said MDC spokesperson Mr Kurauone Chihwayi.
During the course of the registration program, ZEC was accused of turning away people without proper identification, proof of residence and those deemed to be 'aliens.' However, these issues were all resolved and to date there are countless Commissioners of Oaths at any registration station to provide proof of residence free of charge.
The Registrar General's office responded to Government's call to have mobile stations to provide the necessary identification documents free of charge and the problem was averted as well. The matter of 'alien' voters was taken care of by the High Court which decreed that 'aliens' can be registered and to date they are being registered hassle free.
The only genuine and real threat to the BVR programme was the misguided demanding of registration slips by some unscrupulous shoddy political players. As can be expected, the opposition tried very hard to lay the blame on President Mnangagwa's ZANU PF party and term this voter manipulation.
However, true to his character, the President was consistent in his call for a free, fair and violent free election. He even distanced his party from anyone trying to manipulate the electorate by demanding their registration slips.
ZEC responded by intensifying its voter education campaign and made it clear that all those being harassed had the right to report perpetrators to the police and they released a press statement to this effect, likewise the police issued their own statement supporting ZEC.
By and large, ZEC's efforts have to be commended as they have done a sterling job thus far. Their equipment has been operational and people have been served with little or no trouble at all and Government has tried to ensure that other players like the courts and the Registrar General's office have complimented ZEC's efforts to reach their target of 5.5 million voters.
As the mop up exercise comes to a close, this writer wishes to commend ZEC for taking the leap 'into strange new worlds and go where no man has gone before' with considerable success and all the best as they endeavour to deliver a free, fair and credible election in the next four to five months to come.
This was the opening of the 1980s popular TV Series StarTrek, it was revolutionary and ground-breaking in exposing people to how far technology can be used for human development.
The StarTrek opening line can also be used to loosely describe the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's (ZEC) mandate when they embarked on a journey to create a new voters roll using cutting edge technology- The Bio-Metric Voter Registration (BVR) process.
The journey has been a long one but finally it is about to come to an end on 8 February when the mop-up exercise is scheduled to conclude and as at 5 February ZEC had recorded 5,235,854 registered voters.
Let us take a look at some of the troubling stumbling blocks that bedevilled the program. Some of them were genuine concerns but most were simply noises from the usual suspects; opposition political parties and Civic Society Organisations (CSOs) who took this as an opportunity to gain sympathy and funding from their foreign backers.
After initially supporting the idea of a BVR system, the opposition outfit under the banner of the National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA) started to oppose the idea when Government said it would fully fund the programme. NERA even organised a demonstration on 22 March 2017 calling for the resignation of the then ZEC chairperson, Justice Rita Makarau and demanded that the programme be funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
NERA was left with an egg on its face when the UN country Representative, Bishow Parajuli, threw his weight behind the Laxton Group, who had won the tender to supply BVR machinery and Government sponsoring the whole program.
"It is the responsibility of Governments the world over to fund electoral activities. Development partners might just come in to assist. We are pleased with the company providing the BVR kits. It was selected from a fair and transparent process," said Mr Parajuli. Government pledged US$15 million to the BVR program and to date have honoured its commitment.
NERA continued on their ill-fated crusade to have the head of ZEC, Makarau, fired from her post insisting that she was partisan and could not be an impartial referee in any election. Justice Makarau finally heeded the call from the cry-baby opposition outfits and resigned in January 2018 and was replaced by Justice Priscilla Chigumba.
Makarau's resignation was not a capitulation to the misplaced pressure coming from the opposition but a visionary decision by the new President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to remove a future obstacle and deprive the opposition of a reason to discredit the upcoming General Elections.
Chigumba's appointment was widely welcomed and this ensures that ZEC's credibility in as far as its head was concerned become a non-issue.
"As the MDC, we welcome the new ZEC chairperson who is a distinguished lawyer and brings a wealth of experience as a judge. A lot is expected of her because. She has a huge task of delivering credible, free and fair elections," said MDC spokesperson Mr Kurauone Chihwayi.
During the course of the registration program, ZEC was accused of turning away people without proper identification, proof of residence and those deemed to be 'aliens.' However, these issues were all resolved and to date there are countless Commissioners of Oaths at any registration station to provide proof of residence free of charge.
The Registrar General's office responded to Government's call to have mobile stations to provide the necessary identification documents free of charge and the problem was averted as well. The matter of 'alien' voters was taken care of by the High Court which decreed that 'aliens' can be registered and to date they are being registered hassle free.
The only genuine and real threat to the BVR programme was the misguided demanding of registration slips by some unscrupulous shoddy political players. As can be expected, the opposition tried very hard to lay the blame on President Mnangagwa's ZANU PF party and term this voter manipulation.
However, true to his character, the President was consistent in his call for a free, fair and violent free election. He even distanced his party from anyone trying to manipulate the electorate by demanding their registration slips.
ZEC responded by intensifying its voter education campaign and made it clear that all those being harassed had the right to report perpetrators to the police and they released a press statement to this effect, likewise the police issued their own statement supporting ZEC.
By and large, ZEC's efforts have to be commended as they have done a sterling job thus far. Their equipment has been operational and people have been served with little or no trouble at all and Government has tried to ensure that other players like the courts and the Registrar General's office have complimented ZEC's efforts to reach their target of 5.5 million voters.
As the mop up exercise comes to a close, this writer wishes to commend ZEC for taking the leap 'into strange new worlds and go where no man has gone before' with considerable success and all the best as they endeavour to deliver a free, fair and credible election in the next four to five months to come.
Source - Charles Motsi
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