New electoral commission must have new members – Watchdog

Written by Gift Phiri

Wednesday, 07 October 2009 17:35

HARARE - A regional anti-corruption watchdog has said commissioners who served in the previous discredited Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, ZEC, should not be allowed service in the new independent commission until a full enquiry into ZEC's electoral fraud is conducted.
Norman Tjombe, chairperson of the Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa has written to President Mugabe warning that previous members of ZEC should not be allowed to be part of the Independent Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, IZEC, that is being formed by the inclusive government.
The letter was copied to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Kembo Mohadi, minister of Home Affairs, Lovemore Moyo the Speaker and Justice George Chiweshe - the previous chairperson of ZEC.
"In view of the above, members of ZEC, commissioners or staff, should not be allowed to be part of the IZEC until an independent commission of enquiry is carried out," said Tjombe's letter to Mugabe.
Former ZEC deputy chairperson Joyce Kazembe and Theophilus Gambe, a previous member of ZEC, were last week handpicked by a multi-party parliamentary committee to be part of a list of 12 names forwarded to Mugabe for final selection of the new IZEC, to be mandated with running future national elections.
ZEC's partisan support for Zanu (PF) sparked a heated argument at interviews held by the Standing Rules and Orders Committee to select candidates for the IZEC last week.
As first reported by The Zimbabwean **********, ZEC tabled a patently false report in Parliament in May, claiming the March 29 and June 27 elections were "efficient, transparent, free and fair."
Despite lying to Parliament, which constitutes a serious offence under the Parliamentary Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act, no action has been taken against ZEC, except last week Tuesday's attempt by Matinenga to quiz Kazembe about the false report.
The glossy ZEC report conveniently left out information on how election marshals led voters to polling stations and bands of government supporters harassed people in the streets, especially during the sham June 27 vote.
It even claims the March vote was run "efficiently". Yet the partisan electoral body withheld election results for five weeks as it tinkered with ballots to fit the matrix of a presidential run-off vote. The win by the MDC in the March vote sparked unprecedented state-sponsored violence that left 200 dead and over 30,000 internally displaced, according to the anti-corruption watchdog.
"Other effects of the bungling by the ZEC is that the state was left paralysed and with no government in place from March 2008 until February 2009," said the letter to Mugabe.
"If an enquiry is made, we recommend that the findings of such an enquiry should be made public and its recommendations fully implemented, and; investigate fully and prosecute all those responsible for the abductions and killings of political activists, human rights defenders and electoral officials such as Mr. Ignatius Mushangwe, a ZEC official who was abducted and killed in June 2008," the letter says.
No comment could be obtained from the president's press secretary, George Charamba.

Comments (0)

Only registered users can write comments!

YourZim Login