Opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) says the draft delimitation report tabled before Parliament last week is not the best neither is it the worst, calling on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to take into account feedback from stakeholders.
Delimitation is the process of dividing the country into constituencies and wards for the purposes of elections of persons to constituency seats in the National Assembly and of councillors to local authorities. The process is carried out in terms of sections 160 and 161 of the Constitution.
Addressing journalists in Harare today, CCC national spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said the report is a starting point for demarcating boundaries for 2023 general elections.
“It’s not the best delimitation report but it’s not the worst at the same time. It offers a useful starting point, I think what’s crucial in its entirety is what’s going to happen from here. The important thing is that the Zimbabwe Election Commission must make sure that it takes into account the feedback of stakeholders especially Members of Parliament, lawyers and other experts.
“It must be highlighted that the boundaries that Zimbabwe is using today were drawn up in 2007 for the purposes of 2008 elections, it’s untenable, unimaginable if not farcical to go to an election in 2023 with boundaries based on data that is over three election cycles out of date.
“There has been significant changes in the population but more importantly there was a fresh, new start registration of voters in 2017 the biometric voter registration process for the 2018 election where everybody registered anew. What this tells us is that the 2007 which is the basis of the current boundaries is wildly out of stake with the geographic and other demographics information that obtains in Zimbabwe today,” said Mahere
She called on the electoral body to improve the report so that boundaries tally with the population.
“Efforts must go toward improving the delimitation draft report so that we have boundaries that are in sync with the population and registration data. It’s not like we want to throw it all out, that is the position of the Citizens Coalition for Change,” she said
Mahere added “We demand the electronic copy of the voters roll, everything when it comes to delimitation turns on the voters roll, and it tells us the number of voters in any given area. We can’t have figure being given without the voters roll, that’s no enough we have to see the actual voters roll.”
CCC deputy secretary for elections Ellen Shiriyedenga said the discrepancies in the ZEC draft report could have been avoided had they carried adequate consultations.
