Exclusion rife in electoral system
Providence Moyo
The inclusion of marginalised groups in Zimbabwe’s electoral processes remains a pipe dream, an expert has said.
This emerged at the weekend during the Election 101 Series, a Twitter Space focused on issues around the electoral processes.
“For inclusion to happen, there are a lot of loopholes that need to be addressed because currently an inclusive electoral system remains a pipe dream and there is a lot of work that must be done to attain it,” said legal practitioner and disability activist Abraham Mateta.
He bemoaned the exorbitant electoral fees as a huge deterrent to marginalised groups such as youths, rural communities, women and people with disabilities.
“There has been an argument that the fees will attract only serious candidates to take up the spaces but these fees are exorbitant. The electoral system needs to consider vulnerable groups like women, youths and people from remote areas because not so many of them would afford these fees and that preserves political positions for the fortunate ones whilst shutting out those from poor backgrounds which then kills the essence of equality because our political space favours those who are financially viable. These make up the majority of citizens and their inclusion would benefit the country.”
Last week, parliament okayed the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s nomimation fees that have caused an outcry. Under the steep fees structure, presidential candidates must fork out $20 000 while parliamentary hopefuls have to part with $1 000 to participate in the 23 August election.
Mateta said it is important for electoral information to be clear and understandable to everyone as he castigated the use of unhelpful jargon in electoral information.
“Electoral information is replete with jargon which youths fail to understand and hence since they do not understand they then feel not part of the electoral system in the country. There is need for electoral information to be accessible and understandable so that people grow interest in it,” he said.
Issues of physical accessibility also came to the fore during the discussion. Concerns were raised about the failure to provide ramps, braille and other facilities to cater for PWDs in electoral processes.
Questions were raised as to why Nomination Court proceedings take place in designated areas which are at times far away from where people live. In the spirit of leaving no one and no place behind, there was emphasis on decentralising the Nomination Court process to areas where people live. Mateta spoke about how someone living in a remote area is disenfranchised by having to travel long distances just to submit papers expressing interest to contest.
He added: ” Inclusivity of processes underpins patriotism. The idea is to ensure everyone feels part and parcel of the process and that the system must be designed in such a way that embraces everyone including the marginalised.”
Election series 101 is a youth led online platform that seeks to enriches electoral discussions for an inclusive society with particular interest in the 2023 Elections.
Wednesday 21 June is nomination day when all nominations of presidential candidates are received in the capital city Harare.Nominations of National Assembly Constituency members will be received at designated provincial venues for all constituencies in the respective provinces.
Nominations of party-list candidates for the Senate, National Assembly and Provincial Councils will be received at designated Provincial venues. Nominations of candidates for election to local authority councils will be received at designated offices of the various local authorities country-wide.
