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before the country holds harmonised elections expected this year,
with the matter now a closed chapter, Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said.
He said in an interview yesterday the three political parties in the inclusive Government agreed on the composition of the ZEC secretariat.
However, this was disputed by MDC-T chairperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora who said they still wanted the ZEC secretariat to be reformed.
Minister Chinamasa said that there would be no further changes to the electoral body’s secretariat unless the Commission decided otherwise.
This comes at a time the search for money to fund the referendum and general elections has begun with Minister Chinamasa and Finance Minister Tendai Biti writing to the United Nations Development Programme appealing for $250 million for the two processes.
It has since emerged that the money is much less than what is required as it excludes funds required by the police to carry out their mandate during the elections.
Minister Chinamasa said there was no stalemate over the ZEC secretariat as the political parties had agreed on the issue.
The MDC formations had insisted that the secretariat was “partisan” and should be replaced before the elections.
“There is no issue there and the noises which are coming out are coming from people who do not know what we have resolved in our meetings with the PM and other stakeholders,” Minister Chinamasa said. “We jointly agreed to the composition of the Commission, its operations and also the secretariat through a transparent process and any noises will not lead to any changes. This is now a closed chapter.”
Minister Chinamasa said the electoral body was independent and should work without influence of political parties.
“The Commission has an ongoing exercise to decide on their issues, meaning it is up to them to decide who is competent or not,” he said.
“They can also fire and recruit staff depending on what they need. Just as what has been agreed, we are not going to entertain any further reforms be it in ZEC or the security sector.”
Mr Mwonzora accused Zanu-PF of appointing the secretariat “singularly”.
“We agreed on the Commission not the secretariat,” he said. “We want a replacement of the same secretariat that took more than six weeks to announce the Presidential results in 2008.
“If they do not change, then we can’t reveal our tactics but these are some of the legal issues that have always exercised the mind of the facilitator (South African President Jacob Zuma).”
Meanwhile, Minister Chinamasa said they had begun sourcing for funds for the referendum and elections.
ZEC requires $85 million for the referendum, while elections are expected to gobble $107 million.
“I can confirm that as part of mobilising resources, we recently wrote a joint letter with the Finance Minister (Biti) to the UNDP with an initial budget of nearly $250 million,” he said.
“That’s an initial budget, at the moment ZEC, my ministry and the finance ministry are interrogating that budget as other logistics have to be covered.”
The police, Minister Chinamasa said, had submitted their budget, which they were still interrogating.
“Police need logistical support to get to all the polling stations among other issues and they have put a cost to that,” he said.
“I cannot disclose their amount, but all I can say is that we are also interrogating that budget and it means it becomes an additional expenditure to the money needed for the processes. We will write to them giving them the exact figure.”
President Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last month tasked Minister Chinamasa and Minister Biti to source money for the referendum and general elections from donors.
Government has stated that the funds should strictly come through Treasury for onward transmission to institutions that run electoral processes.
Parliament has adopted the draft constitution, paving way for the referendum in which the political parties have agreed to campaign for a Yes Vote.
The referendum will pave way for elections that would end the troubled inclusive Government that came into effect in 2009 after disputes surrounding the presidential elections held in 2008.
Online Reporter