Last-ditch push for electoral amendments unfortunate: Stakeholders

 Sibahle Ndlovu

Electoral stakeholders in Matabeleland have expressed concern over last minute debates on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill No. 2 describing them as unfortunate especially for the electorate.

With only a few months left before the 2023 harmonised elections, the Electoral Act Amendment Bill No. 2 is in its second reading stage with legislators having met last Thursday to deliberate on clauses linked to the use of drivers licence as a form of identification, introduction of the Braille ballot, delimitation, among others.

The country awaits proclamation of this year’s election dates by the President, who is mandated by Section 158 (1) of the Constitution to do so within 30 days before the expiry of the five-year term.

According to Zimbabwe NGO Forum Program Coordinator Wilbert Madinde, the President can proclaim an election date is 2 June 2023. The President is guided by Section 38 of the Electoral law which states that “nomination of candidates must be between 14 to 21 days after proclamation of election, and also done in such a way to allow a period of 30 to 60 days between nomination and polling.”

Section 157 (5) of the Constitution provides that “after an election has been called, no change to the Electoral Law or to any other law relating to elections has effect for the purpose of that election.

Mbuso Fuzwayo of Ibhetshu Likazulu is of the view that debating Electoral Laws at this point will raise questions among the electorate leading to mistrust on the electoral process.

“The timing is wrong. We can’t have changes on the eleventh hour, because people are now expecting that everything to do with elections should have been done two years back. The fact that they want to do it now might raise questions. If we are still debating about election reforms or anything related to elections, it is unfortunate,” he said.

Question

During the recent reading of the Bill, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi suggested that there be a Delimitation Act focusing only on delimitation issues to avoid loading issues on the Electoral Board.

“We need to come up with a Delimitation Act and my submission also is we have concentrated on the Electoral Board, even things that are not theirs. So, we need not to cloud ourselves and unnecessarily put things in the Electoral Act but really to think what we need to do in terms of coming up with proper legislation that will govern how.

I agree with some of the issues that you raised there. They are very noble but I think for our purposes now, it might not quite satisfy what is needed to deal with delimitation issues,”said Minister Ziyambi.

While the delimitation report has been a contentious issue since it was gazetted in February this year, stakeholders are of the opinion that legislators had ample time to debate such issues and not to try to fit them in a last minute amendment or new act.

“It [Electoral Amendment Bill No. 2] might be a good thing but ill-timed. The executive is not clean on issues of delimitation because now we were expecting that the president should have proclaimed the election date, but there still debates on the electoral law,” said Fuzwayo.

Human Rights defender and activist, Effie Ncube echoed Fuzwayo’s views, arguing that there is no need for an act focusing on delimitation as the aspect is catered for by the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

“There isn’t any need for a Delimitation Act, we can use the Electoral Act and amend it to provide for those things that we think should be addressed under the Delimitation Act. Whether we amend for the electoral act to provide the details that we want or we come up with a delimitation act, what matters is that whatever legislation is used has to satisfy the provisions of Section 67, 155 and 156 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which states that every Zimbabwean has a right to free, fair and regular elections,”emphasised Ncube.

Sibusisiwe Mpofu of Ward 13, Tsholotsho said: “it is worrying that while people are busy trying to understand the new boundaries, Parliament is also busy amending laws that will further confuse the electorate if passed”.