24 March 2004
Proposed Amendments to Electoral Act Signify Another Step In The Wrong Direction
The Electoral Amendment Bill, scheduled to be presented to Parliament this week for debate and approval, is yet another step in the wrong direction by the Zanu PF government.
Substantive amendments are indeed required to the existing Electoral Act in order to harmonise its provisions with SADC Norms and Standards for elections, adopted by the SADC Parliamentary Forum Plenary Assembly on 25 March 2001. However, the amendments proposed in the Bill, are the very antithesis of harmonisation; in fact they demonstrate the ‘gulf of difference’ between the Zimbabwe government and its SADC counterparts with respect to the management and conduct of elections.
Countries such as Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique will in their turn conduct elections in strict accordance with agreed SADC standards whilst Zimbabwe continues to swim against the tide of progress and electoral probity.
Rather than using this opportunity to demonstrate commitment to free and fair elections, the Zanu PF government has opted to amend the existing Electoral Act for purposes of political expediency. The amendments strengthen the status quo in relation to the administration and management of the electoral process. This is illustrated by an amendment that gives the state sole control of the voter education process through the partisan Electoral Supervisory Commission, whose militarised personnel is appointed by Mr. Mugabe.
Not only are Mugabe and Zanu PF reneging on a multi-lateral commitment that they are signatory to, they have embarked on an agenda that reverses all democratic freedoms and subordinates the sovereign wishes of the people to the narrow interests of the ruling elite.
As the respective electorates in South Africa, Malawi and Mozambique go to the polls in the next few months they should think of their brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe, who nearly 24 years after independence, are still being denied their basic democratic right of casting their ballots in a free and fair election.
Our SADC brothers and sisters should ask themselves why their Zimbabwean counterparts are denied the opportunity to enjoy electoral processes that have become the norm on other SADC countries.
The MDC recently set out 15 conditions pertaining to the SADC Protocol on elections that need to be met so that the party can participate comfortably in next year’s parliamentary elections. For the sake of democracy and the suffering people of Zimbabwe, we urge our brothers and sisters in SADC countries to bring pressure to bear on Mugabe and Zanu PF to satisfy these conditions and honour their commitment to conducting elections in accordance with agreed norms and standards.
Paul Themba Nyathi
Secretary for Information and Publicity
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