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The Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) has stressed the need for dialogue on issues surrounding the country’s democratic space and electoral reforms.
This came up during a meeting with the United Nations (UN)’s Inter-Agency Mission to Zimbabwe last week.
POLAD has been dedicated and committed to further engaging with the international community to identify areas in which convergence can be established for improving citizens’ livelihoods.
POLAD’s information communication and publicity spokesperson Mr Khalipani Phugeni told The Herald yesterday that the New York-based mission was in favour of dialogue and keen on seeing all political parties working together to spur economic growth.
Mr Phugeni said POLAD was working on incorporating various stakeholders into the platform, as dialogue was a necessity in achieving the much-needed economic turnaround.
“We met with UN Inter-Agency Mission to Zimbabwe,” he said. “We discussed many issues. Their interest was on how we can broaden this dialogue, first of all we have to bring in those political parties who are not part of this dialogue, secondly, we need to look at how we can bring in other constituencies like civil society, churches and possibly the dispossessed white farmers.”
Mr Phugeni said POLAD was working on seeing that the country’s democratic space was open to all as the Inter-Agency mission concurred that voices of the minority needed to be heard as democracy was about their protection and promotion.
He said the platform was pushing for electoral reforms, which would result in gender parity in the country.
“It is not always about the majority of votes, so even those that got few votes in terms of percentage, in terms of voters, their voices must still be heard, so those are the issues we discussed with the United Nations inter-agency mission to Zimbabwe,” said Mr Phugeni.
“Democracy at its very core is about protection and promotion of the minorities.”
Mr Phugeni said they advised the UN organ that they were “advocating for change in the Electoral Act and elections’ processes in Zimbabwe so that we have a proportional representation system.”
He said the UN’s Inter-Agency mission to the country had been briefed on the need to scale-up food assistance in light of climate change and the impending drought.
“We also discussed issues that had to do with climate change, food assistance that is needed and what can be done to help Zimbabwe deal with this changing climate for the betterment of its people,” he said.
Meanwhile, POLAD is set to convene an executive plenary meeting tomorrow, which is expected to extensively look at the platform’s performance so far this year.
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