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Harare Bureau
Cabinet has endorsed amendments to align the Electoral Act with the new constitution with prospective candidates for the forthcoming harmonised elections now being able to submit their nomination papers to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for scrutiny before the sitting of the nomination court.
This is expected to allow the candidates ample time to get their papers in order and avoid being disqualified for petty reasons. The names of all election agents would no longer be published in the media but political parties would submit them to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for accreditation.
Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa yesterday confirmed Cabinet had endorsed amendments recommended by the Global Political Agreement negotiators. “It was a lengthy discussion where Cabinet discussed and accepted our recommendations which is a good development that clears the path towards our elections,” he said.
“For the first time we have instituted a procedure where political parties can submit the names of their candidates before the nomination day to avoid disqualification on technical or petty grounds. Another primary change is that election agents will not be advertised but their names will be forwarded to Zec for accreditation badges. Without these badges, they will not be allowed into the polling stations.”
Minister Chinamasa said the structure of the National Assembly and Senate had been changed with the addition of a women’s quota that would come through the proportional representation system.
He said Cabinet had also adopted recommendations on how election results would be handled.
“The amendments clarify that each polling station results will be pinned outside the polling station and candidates will get duplicate copies of the polling station results returns and these will be transmitted to the ward collation centres and directly to the national command centre,” he said.
“Each political party is also free to provide names of three officers and any two of these will have the authority to sign nomination papers for the 210 National Assembly candidates, 60 women’s quota candidates on the party list for Senate and 10 for provincial members coming through proportional representation.”
To avoid a situation where a party fields more than one candidate in a constituency, Minister Chinamasa said each political party would be allowed to designate three officers at provincial level where signatures of two of them could enable nomination of councillors in wards. “In 2008, we had problems with political parties fielding more than one candidate and this will curbed by this procedure. Political parties should submit the names of these office bearers to Zec,” he said.
“We have also reduced the number of nominators for competing candidates in the National Assembly elections from 10 to five.”
Minister Chinamasa said the number of polling agents in a polling station would be limited.
“The changes are meant to give Zec a discretion to limit the number of election agents inside a polling station and we have agreed that every Presidential candidate is allowed three election agents. One will be inside the polling station while the other two will be outside providing relief to the one inside when required,” he said.
“In respect of political parties fielding both a council and National Assembly candidate, they will be allowed three election agents. One will be inside the polling station and two others are there to relieve him or her.”
He said there would be ‘roving election agents’ who would supplement the functions of chief election agents. “This roving election agent is allowed to hop from one polling station to another in order to confer with the party’s election agent at a polling station to acquaint with any problems that may be reported to him or her,” Minister Chinamasa said.
He said the Election Accredidation Committee would be beefed up with two commissioners coming on board. He said in the event that there is a vacancy on the party list due to withdrawal or death, the party with the person involved is allowed to make a nomination to fill in the vacancy.
“After the elections, there will be no recourse on the party list submitted at the time of nomination in the previous election and the party will make a nomination to fill the vacancy for the five year period.”
Minister Chinamasa said accreditation of observers would be done at national and provincial level.
Online Reporter