The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba last night exposed the election mother body’s incapacity to preside over a credible election when she appeared to contradict herself on whether they have investigating powers while being evasive on several grievances raised by election stakeholders and opposition parties prior to the 30 July harmonized polls.
Justice Chigumba was a guest on a Capitalk Radio programme hosted by Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa.
Asked to clarify the contentious issue of mobile phone database allegedly accessed by the ruling Zanu PF which was sending messages to people, Chigumba said they are investigating the matter together with the help of the ministry of Information and Communication Technology.
“We, as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission we are investigating what happened together with the minister of ICT,” Chigumba said.
Chigumba later contradicted her earlier assertion about ZEC’s investigating powers when she asked to explain on the alleged electoral malpractices witnessed at Ross Camp where police officers were voting.
She said the electoral mother body had no investigating powers regardless of anomalies that may associate with the electoral processes.
“The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission does not have an investigating mandate whatsoever, no matter what the electoral malpractice is, so the Zimbabwe Republic Police has an investigative mandate, Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission has an investigating mandate, so what we do is when we get reports, or if complains are referred to us to say I was forced to exercise my right to the secret vote in front of my commanding officer, we by necessity, must refer those complains to those constitutional bodies that have investigative powers, we don’t have investigative powers.”
When 263Chat contacted ICT minister, Supa Mandiwandinzira to establish the progress on the investigations on the matter, he referred all the questions to the permanent secretary, Mr Samuel Kundishora whose mobile phone went unanswered.
