Opinion / Columnist
CCC voters roll court application confused and confusing, ZEC adds confusion
19 Aug 2023 at 11:33hrs | Views
Going by today's NewsDay article headlined 'Voters roll mess to affect 1,8m people' reproduced below, the real mess is that the applicants in the court case referred to in the article apparently do not quite know or do not quite understand the voters roll that they need to be focussing on, which is the polling station voters roll that will be used for the purposes of elections next week.
As a result, the applicants end up caught up in a self-indulgent and practically useless fishing expedition, as they tie themselves in knots with neither well established locus standi nor clarity on the voters roll that is used for elections in Zimbabwe nor specificity on the particular election or elections that is or are the subject of their application.
On its part ZEC is not being helpful at all, it is playing hide and seek; obfuscating everything and not coming out clearly about the voters roll that by law is used for elections in Zimbabwe and on whether, as required by section 21(6) of the Electoral Act, ZEC has in fact given all candidates, free of charge, copies of the voters roll to be used at 12,374 polling stations in the three harmonised elections next week on 23 August.
While the applicants are clearly not helping their own confused and confusing application, ZEC is making the situation worse by violating section 239 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which requires the Commission to conduct elections efficiently, freely, fairly, transparently and in accordance to the law [in this case the law being section 21(6) of the Electoral Act].
As a result, the applicants end up caught up in a self-indulgent and practically useless fishing expedition, as they tie themselves in knots with neither well established locus standi nor clarity on the voters roll that is used for elections in Zimbabwe nor specificity on the particular election or elections that is or are the subject of their application.
While the applicants are clearly not helping their own confused and confusing application, ZEC is making the situation worse by violating section 239 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which requires the Commission to conduct elections efficiently, freely, fairly, transparently and in accordance to the law [in this case the law being section 21(6) of the Electoral Act].
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