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Farirai Machivenyika
Senior Reporter
CANADIAN Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christina Buchan, yesterday paid a courtesy call on the Speaker of the National Assembly, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, where they discussed issues around elections and democracy in the two countries.
Ambassador Buchan said they compared notes on how democracy works in both countries including the importance of women representation in Parliament.
“We had a constructive conversation with the Speaker of Parliament about the importance of democracy as both Zimbabwe and Canada are parliamentary democracies and comparing notes on how elections work in both our systems,” she said.
Ambassador Buchan said they also discussed the process of passing Bills in Parliament and the Bills that were currently before Parliament.
“We also discussed about the importance of having women in Parliament and how Zimbabwe has a quota system and how Canada very much believes in women empowerment as we have 50 percent of women Members of Parliament as well as Cabinet members as well as comparing the importance of women and gender in Parliament and how that helps in shaping society,” she said.
Ambassador Buchan added that she was also briefed about the Electoral Amendment Bill which is before Parliament as part of the electoral reforms being implemented by Government.
She also urged Zimbabweans to participate in next year’s harmonised elections.
“Elections are each country’s democratic mechanism and as Canada we very much believe in democracy, good governance, peace and rule of law so I would put a strong plea to everybody in Zimbabwe to participate in the elections, to register, to go and vote and to allow voices to be heard across all political spectrums so that you can have an active political debate and free and fair elections,” Ambassador Buchan said.
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