Matabeleland stakeholders disagree on harmonised elections 

Thandeka Matebesi 

Stakeholders in Matabeleland have castigated harmonised elections as undemocratic for giving more prominence to Presidential elections while relegating other elections to the periphery. 

Zimbabwe has a bi-cameral Parliament comprising the National Assembly and the Senate. The National Assembly has 210 directly elected Members of Parliament, 60 Proportional Representation MPs elected through the women’s quota and 10 youth Quota MPs bringing the total to 280. 

In the Upper House, there are 80 Senators 60 which are elected through Proportional Representation, 18 chiefs and 2 representatives for People living with disabilities. Additionally, citizens have to elect councillors in the local authority elections. 

A harmonised election is whereby voting for the above-mentioned candidates takes place on the same day  whereas in a de-harmonised election voting takes place separately for the President,  the MPs and also for councillors. 

Speaking during ‘This Morning on Asakhe,’ a Twitter Space organised by Cite on Tuesday, one of the participants Methuseli Moyo argued that harmonised elections crowd and bundle issues together, forcing the electorate to direct attention towards the Presidential election to evade the mammoth task of scrutinising local authority and National Assembly candidates. 

Moyo who is also a veteran journalist noted that while harmonised elections were cost-effective, they had the disadvantage of people only voting for a party name rather than policies. 

“From an administrative point of view, I think harmonised elections are cheaper to run. The three elections take place all at once from voter registration up to the election itself.

“The disadvantage is that when we pin all the elections together, one election tends to overshadow the others. The issues become crowded such that voters end up voting for the name of a political party without scrutinising the candidate they are electing to be their councillor or MP,” said Moyo. 

Moyo reiterated that deharmonised elections are more democratic compared to harmonised elections which overshadow local issues. 

“It will be more democratic to hold elections separately so that the people can scrutinise candidates properly. At the end of the day more people are likely to vote across party lines that just voting for a political candidate because they belong to their preferred party, and the campaigns will be localised.” 

“Currently it’s impossible because the elections are happening all at once as if its one thing. Deharmonised elections is the most effective as it gives local issues prominence. People have enough time where an MP can campaign separately,” emphasised Moyo.  

Matabeleland Institute for Human Rights Coordinator Khumbulani Maphosa echoed Moyo’s sentiments emphasising that it’s an abnormality for democratic societies to place too much attention on presidential candidates while neglecting local authority candidates. 

“In a devolved system of government, it’s an abnormality for people to be fixated on who is going to be MP or president. That’s why MPs talk of drilling boreholes in their manifestos as if it’s their duty when their duty is to hold central government accountable and to make laws and policies ensuring that constitutionalism is adhered to,” said Maphosa. 

According to Maphosa deharmonising elections promotes a cycle of accountability creating space for Councillors to talk to people and for the people to hold their councillors accountable.

“A quick look at the previous election, shows that people voted for councillors they never knew or heard from as there was too much going on at the same time. They were actually shocked after the election when they met their representatives. 

We are not the first country to be pushing for de-harmonisation of elections, South Africa for instance deharmonised. Some people will argue that deharmonised elections are expensive but I would also ask them that since funerals are expensive has anyone seen a corpse lying on the street?” quizzed Maphosa. 

Prosper Masibi, another participant of the Twitter Space by CITE expressed concern that separating elections would further increase apathy among fatigued voters. 

“I feel like the vibe towards and anticipation for elections has been dying a slow death over the years. The crop of people we have now are self serving, those that would have died for an election are long gone.

 My fear is if elections are deharmonised there will be voter apathy as happens with by-elections. People don’t even bother voting during  by-election”, lamented Masibi. 

Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) President Mqondisi Moyo explained that while de-harmonisation reduces confusion emanating from ballot papers with three different elections, it unnecessarily takes more resources. 

 “De-harmonisation is beneficial in that  it reduces confusion associated with one having to draw distinctions among many choices, that is, presidential, local authority,  senate and house of assembly. Many voters end up not voting as per their choices due to such confusion. 

However, I don’t think de-harmonisation of elections is necessary given the huge costs of running an election. 

“Harmonisation is advantageous in that it allows elections at all levels of government to be conducted simultaneously, thereby cutting down on election cost,”  he said. 

MRP has been on record saying it will not field any candidate for the Presidential post,  but will only focus of National Assembly and local government elections as they are essential to the development of Matabeleland.