Govt open to poll reforms

Walter Nyamukondiwa Mashonaland West Bureau
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has the prerogative to proclaim a date for the harmonised elections and Government is taking every necessary step to ensure the poll passes all democratic benchmarks, a Cabinet minister has said.

In an interview, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said stakeholders should take advantage of the Electoral Amendment Act to iron out all contentious issues related to electoral reforms.

“The President will have to proclaim the dates of the elections and it is his prerogative to do that,” he said. “We have the Electoral Amendment Act that is before Parliament and we are talking to all those who are crying for electoral reforms to bring in whatever they feel is contentious.

“We discuss, we agree and we can introduce them since we have a Bill which is in Parliament.” President Mnangagwa told delegates during the fourth leg of his regional tour in Mozambique that Zimbabweans should brace for elections in the next five months. He said the elections should be transparent, free and fair, as a critical ingredient in repositioning Zimbabwe as a democratic state within the international community. Minister Ziyambi said all contentious issues needed to be cleared through the legal process that was underway, so that they did not discredit the polls.

“We want the elections to be free, fair and credible,” he said. “We don’t want little issues to cloud the real issues. I think that will be done.” Cde Ziyambi said Veritas Zimbabwe had raised some issues and they were being considered at the Parliament committee stage.

Veritas Zimbabwe is an organisation which provides information on the work of the Parliament of Zimbabwe and makes public the laws of the country. This, he said, was a sign of goodwill which shows Government’s sincerity in ensuring credible elections.

“We received some comments from Veritas Zimbabwe and we are considering them,” he said. “We are willing at committee stage, as a sign of goodwill, to introduce some of the things.

“We want everyone to be happy as we go towards elections.” Minister Ziyambi said the issues would be discussed in an open session of Parliament. He said voter registration by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was going on smoothly, with slightly more than five million people registered so far.

“Preparations for the elections at Government level are on course,” said Minister Ziyambi. “We are doing the voter registration mop-up and the figure that we now have of over five million is a very decent figure of registered voters.

“We hope that ZEC will do the clean-up of the voters’ roll, avail it for inspection and then everything should be okay.” President Mnangagwa has called for peace ahead of the elections, saying they will be a SADC and African Union affair, and all states that subscribe to democratic values.