‘ZEC won’t accredit NGOs under probe’

referendum. ZEC acting chairperson Mrs Joyce Kazembe told delegates who attended a briefing on the commission’s preparedness for the referendum in Harare yesterday that such civil society organisations would only be accredited upon acquittal by the authorities.
“Non governmental organisations that are under investigations will not be registered to observe the referendum,” said told the delegates.
Mrs Kazembe later told journalists that ZEC had turned down a request by ZimRights to observe the referendum.
ZimRights officials were arrested on allegations of fraud and forgery relating to election documents.
Prosecutors allege that the officials obtained a voter registration form and made counterfeit copies ahead of key elections scheduled later this year.
“We turned down their request because they are undergoing investigations. We have told them to bring documentation of acquittal if they have any. We will also verify if indeed they would have been acquitted,” she said.
Mrs Kazembe said some network civil society organisations had submitted a combined list of proposed observers from various organisations without identifying the particular organisations. She said the commission had since informed these network organisations among them Zimbabwe Election Support Network and Women’s Coalition in Zimbabwe to unbundle their membership into individual organisations.
Mrs Kazembe said local civic society organisations were allowed to recommend as many observers as they could while foreign embassies outside Africa could only propose a maximum of five members who should be foreign nationals. She said the Observer Accreditation Committee had received several applications from embassies adding that accreditation for both local and international observers would close on the referendum day.
Mrs Kazembe said applications by international organisations to observe the referendum would be considered by the Observer Accreditation Committee that includes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after applying through the commission or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Meanwhile, ZEC Chief Elections Officer Mr Lovemore Sekeramayi dismissed claims by Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart that his ministry requested the commission to recruit teachers as polling agents as the last alternative.
He said the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture had not made such a request hence the commission recruited teachers as part of the 70 000 polling officers to man 9 449 polling stations throughout the country.
ZEC commissioner Professor Geoff Feltoe said Zimbabweans at the country’s embassies across the world would not vote at the referendum.
“There will be no postal ballots for this referendum because the time period specified in the Electoral Act does not allow for them to vote within the time frame given,” said Prof Feltoe said.
He said the time between announcement of the referendum date and the actual holding of the referendum was too short to allow postal voting.
Prof Feltoe also defended the printing of 12 million ballot papers when there are only about 5,5 million registered voters. He said there was a need to have a contingent provision since voters would not use the voter’s roll at the referendum while it was not clear on the population of eligible voters who are over 18 years old.
Zimbabweans will on Saturday vote for or against the draft Constitution.