Opposition political parties have called for the country’s election mother body, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to be dissolved amid accusations of incompetence in addressing election irregularities.
The calls came during a public hearing on electoral reforms after an independent election monitoring body, Election Resource Center (ERC) submitted a petition to parliament calling for reforms within ZEC.
Douglas Mwonzora, MDC-T Secretary General, suggested that for any meaningful reforms to take place, the election monitoring body must be dissolved entirely as he labelled it “too dirty” to oversee free and fair elections.
“ZEC is a toothless bulldog that is too dirty to oversee any free elections in the country. The whole body must be dissolved and pave way for a new body that will usher in a new lease of life and bring confidence in the electorate.
“We do not want a situation where every election has cases of fraud that should seize as we head into 2018. As the MDC-T we want reforms involving the security of the vote, security of the vote as well as the security of the voter,” Mwonzora said.
Murisi Zwizwai, MDC-T Member of Parliament for Harare Central, weighed in saying the fact that people in the diaspora are not allowed to vote and ZEC remains mum on the issue, shows how incompetent the organization is.
“Being Zimbabwean is not defined by your physical address but by birth, registration and ancestry. So by depriving those in the diaspora their right to vote, there is serious infringement of the constitution yet ZEC is quite on that. This is lack of seriousness from their side, hence we call upon their immediate resignation,” said the irate Zwizwai, adding that the election governing body is an extension of the ruling party, Zanu PF
Another politician, Charles Mbira of the ZUNDE party said, ZEC needs to be demilitarized as it is infiltrated with members of the central intelligence, police officers, army officers and former service chiefs who are compromising the duties which the body must be undertake.
“We have seen police officers wearing Zanu PF party regalia, we know of central intelligence staff who work within ZEC. This tells us that the election body is not independent as there is a third force included,” alleged Mbira.
He added that such tendencies will jeopardize the credibility of elections.
“During the run up to the Norton elections, which were won by Independent Temba Mliswa, there were cases of politically motivated violence after Mliswa was barred from holding a rally at Nguni Stadium.
ZEC did not act upon such and thus puts the name of the organization into disrepute,” added Mbira.
The first electoral reforms public hearing was however, prematurely called off as Zvimba West Legislature , Ziyambi Ziyambi, caused commotion and interruptions.
Ziyambi kept interjecting and disturbing the proceedings, as well as disrupting the chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Jessie Majome.
Majome and other members of the committee briefly took Ziyambi outside the Parliament Building, where they cautioned him against disrupting the meeting.
A few minutes later, Ziyambi was at it again, causing the meeting to be aborted.
