Online Reporter
MacDenias Moyo
Zimbabwe’s parliamentary voting system, where members openly cast their votes into YES and NO tallies, is not an aberration, but a legitimate democratic practice rooted in transparency and accountability.
It is a system that finds resonance in many progressive democracies across the world, a system that ensures the people can see how their representatives vote on matters of national importance such as CAB3 and a system that affirms the supremacy of the people’s mandate by refusing to hide decisions behind secrecy.
At the recent ZANU PF National Youth Leadership Meeting held at the party headquarters in Harare, Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi addressed the youth on the importance of CAB3 and the parliamentary process that will soon decide its fate.
He dismissed opposition claims that open voting exposes parliamentarians to bribery and vote buying, explaining that
Zimbabwe operates a Party Parliamentary System where each party has a Chief Whip who enforces discipline and ensures that members vote in line with the party’s vision. His words were clear and uncompromising.
“The opposition were beginning to lie that Parliamentarians can be bought to vote for CAB3. Our Parliament System is a Party Parliamentary System which means each Party has a Chief Whip who will whip Party Parliamentarians into line. Our ZANU PF Party Chief Whip in Parliament is Cde Pupurai Togarepi and his job is to stress and enforce the Party’s direction and vision.”
This is not a system of chaos, but a system of order, a system where the Party derives its mandate from the people and ensures that its representatives in Parliament carry that mandate faithfully. It is a system that binds representatives to the collective will of the masses and prevents betrayal of the vision that the Party has been entrusted to deliver.
The claim that open voting is undemocratic collapses when confronted with global practice. In the United Kingdom House of Commons, votes are taken by division where members physically walk into the YES or NO lobbies and their names are recorded for the public to see. In the United States Congress, votes are cast openly and recorded electronically, with each member’s vote published in the Congressional Record for posterity.
In the South African National Assembly, members press buttons for YES or NO and the tally is displayed publicly for all to witness.
In the German Bundestag, members raise their hands or stand to be counted in open votes, affirming their choices without secrecy.
These systems are not secret ballots, they are open tallies, transparent and accountable, allowing citizens to see how their representatives voted and preventing the cloak of secrecy from shielding betrayal of the people’s mandate.
Minister Ziyambi explained further, “The house is divided into YES and NO groups in Parliament. It is a Party democratic system and the Party is supreme. Our Parliamentarians will always support the vision of the Party in Parliament and they will always push the agenda of the Party in Parliament.”
He gave the example of electing the Speaker of Parliament, where the Party caucus nominates and seconds a candidate and when Parliament convenes only those two raise their hands to nominate and second. If the opposition fails to nominate, the Party candidate is elected unopposed. This is order, this is discipline, this is democracy expressed through party structures.
And if any parliamentarian betrays the Party mandate, the Constitution empowers the Party to recall them. As Ziyambi explained, “If you sell out and if your interests are not aligned to the interests of the Party, the Party Secretary General will simply write a letter under the directive of the Party to notify Parliament that you are no longer a member of the Party and therefore you no longer represent the interests of ZANU PF in Parliament.” This safeguard ensures that loyalty to the people’s vision is never compromised and that betrayal is swiftly corrected.
CAB3 has been endorsed by the majority across the country. Public consultations were extensive and exhaustive, millions of Zimbabweans submitted written views and social media has been filled with posts, pictures and videos in support of CAB3. The people hailed it as a progressive reform and a shift from toxicity to stability.
President Mnangagwa has declared, “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo. We must build our country with our own hands.” CAB3 is part of that building. It extends electoral cycles to seven years, reduces political paralysis, stabilises governance and creates space for development.
The opposition claims of bribery and vote buying are manufactured crises. They ignore the reality of party discipline, they ignore the constitutional power of recall, they ignore the transparency of open voting and they ignore the overwhelming support of the people.
Democracy is not secrecy, democracy is accountability, democracy is transparency, democracy is the people seeing how their representatives vote. Open voting ensures that parliamentarians cannot hide behind secrecy, it ensures that betrayal is visible, it ensures that loyalty is affirmed.
Zimbabwe’s parliamentary voting system is aligned with global practice, aligned with democratic principles, aligned with the supremacy of the people’s mandate. CAB3 is now before Parliament.
The people have spoken, the people have endorsed, the people have demanded stability. Parliament must listen, Parliament must vote openly, Parliament must tally YES and NO, Parliament must make CAB3 a reality.
Open voting is not a weakness, it is a strength. It is transparency, it is accountability, it is democracy. It is the system used in the United Kingdom, the United States, South Africa, Germany and many other progressive democracies.
Zimbabwe must ignore the manufactured crises of career opposers. Zimbabwe must embrace truth, Zimbabwe must embrace progress, Zimbabwe must embrace CAB3.
Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo. The people have spoken. Parliament must deliver.
