Newly appointed Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba says she will deliver a credible, free and fair election this year.
“It is a great honour and privilege to be asked to serve as ZEC chairperson. I want to promise Zimbabweans that I will deliver a free and fair credible election. Certainly, we will look into the questions and issues raised because it is our intention to deliver a free, fair and credible election.
“ZEC
is an administrative body emanating from the Constitution and the Electoral
Act. My mandate as an umpire is to make sure there is fairness in the process
of electing leaders by the people. It is a clear mandate that I intend to
discharge fully.
“The
commission’s doors are open for those who want to come and engage us.”
ZEC only started the voter registration exercise in September last year, for example; there is no way it was going to register 7 million voters from scratch in the allocated five months. Last month ZEC officials admitted they will register only 5 million. So, nearly 30% of the eligible voters are being denied the vote because ZEC started the registration late.
To make matters worse, ZEC will not have time to down load the data and produce a verified voters’ roll before the elections. A verified voters’ roll is a common sense and legal requirement. As the new ZEC Chairperson, Justice Chigumba, must know that it was the failure to have a verified voters’ roll that made it impossible to stop such blatant vote rigging shenanigans as stopping hooded Zanu PF youths who were bussed from one polling station to the next casting multiple votes.
Even if ZEC Officials, under the able leadership of the new Chairperson, should decide to stop these hooded youths from casting multiple votes; can ZEC do this without the cooperation of the Police who, alone, have the power to investigate, arrest, detain, etc.!
“I promise to deliver free and fair election!” Are you going to add another 10 working hours to each day for the rest of the year to election day so can register the 2 million missed in the current voter registration exercise, to produce a verified voters’ roll, etc., etc.? If you cannot do these things then stop talking nonsense, just shut up.
What is disappointing here is we have ZEC chairperson who is claiming that she will deliver free, fair and credible elections, repeating the regime's empty promise, but clearly has no clue what she is talking about.
ReplyDeleteShe is a Zimbabwean, not just any Zimbabwean but a lawyer and judge at that, who should know the country's torturous history of political violence and rigged elections. She should also know the heavy price in terms of the economic meltdown due to decades of misrule by the Zanu PF government. The nation is absolutely desperate to have free and fair elections because it is our ticket out of this economic and political mess.
Justice Chigumba should know what constitute free and fair elections, why this is no laughing matter to the nation, should know why the nation has failed to hold free and fair elections in the past and, most important of all, she should know it will be impossible to hold free and fair elections without implemented the democratic reforms. Anyone who has been following Zimbabwe's political events knows that not even one reform was implemented during the GNU and none since!
If there was ever any doubt that Justice Priscilla Chigumba will never deliver free and fair elections, then her empty promise has removed all the doubt. With all the good will in the world no one can create the additional time needed to make sure the 2 million voters ZEC has failed to reach the voter registration was started late. ZEC will not have the time to produce a verified voters' roll. How will anyone ever know who voted if there is no means of carrying out a spot audit because there is no verified voters' roll.
Justice Chigumba already knows that it is impossible to hold free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe, she is promising that she will because she is paid and paid well to say so regardless of the reality on the ground.
ReplyDeleteShamu told the residents not to politicise cholera as the disease knows no boundaries.
However, the Norton meeting was almost disrupted by Norton legislator, Themba Mliswa who arrived midway and started demanding that as Member of Parliament for the area, he must be included on the programme.
Themba Mliswa is behaving like the thug he is. Being an MP of any area does not mean you have a right to be invited to every public gathering in the area. It is bad enough that people are obliged to inform the Police of any public gathering, the last thing we want is extending this o include the politicians elected or not!
Everyone knows that Zanu PF politicians demand that they must be included in everything in the area but that is wrong; we must condemn it because it is just another form of intimidation.