adminJUSTICE, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday applauded the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for subjecting itself to scrutiny over its performance during last year’s elections.Cde Mnangagwa said this while officially opening a conference for political parties and election monitoring groups to review the 2013 referendum on a new constitution and general elections run by ZEC.
“That means ZEC will take what it can, throw away what goes against its Constitutional mandate and implement the best practices as raised in the forum,” he said.
He added: “How brave, I thought for ZEC to hold such a conference in the presence of its erstwhile detractors, foes and friends. How tolerant indeed to seek the views of all those affected by the elections and further seek to make the experience of elections better in the future.
“To that end, ZEC has called upon all the participants to provide constructive criticism and modest commendations that will equip us to prepare for the next elections in 2018.”
Sadc and the AU pronounced the elections as free, peaceful and credible, and so did the various local observers.
Speaking at the same occasion, ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau said the commission and political parties should start preparing for the next elections.
“The next elections are four-and-a-half years away and we have just about enough time to re-tune our processes where necessary,” she said.
“Now is the time for us to start preparing for the next elections so that we take away some of the hype and heightened tension that we as an election management body add to elections when we constantly complain about inadequate funding which adversely affected logistics during the election period,” she said.
Justice Makarau dismissed the perception that elections are events which can only be prepared for when they are due and urged political parties to utilise the time by registering their people as voters.
“Issues of training of staff, voter education and voter registration, procurement of capital equipment and materials could and in my view should be attended to now rather than closer to the elections,” she said.
The agenda for the review conference covered all sectors affected by elections which include the media and security sector, the nomination court, participation of women and election monitoring.
President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party were swept back into power by a landslide in the July 31 elections, which sparked complaints of election fraud by its MDC rivals. – New Ziana
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