Zimbabwe has been urged to move with speed to adopt African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) if the country is to conduct less disputed elections.
The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) was created by the African Union (AU) in 2007 as a roadmap to encourage better governance across the continent.
It sets out international standards of good governance and democracy in such areas as rule of law, free and fair elections, and condemning unconstitutional changes of government.
ActionAid Zimbabwe Country Director, Joy Mabenge told reporters on the sidelines of a national stakeholder review meeting on ACDEG that although there are no set timelines for Zimbabwe to domesticate the charter, there is need to urgently ratify and adapt it so as to have democratic elections.
“From the conversations, we have had so far, the willingness (to adopt) is there. Of course, these things happen a little bit slow but we cannot wait till the next general elections in 2023. We need to act now,” Mabenge said.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa last year appended his signature to the charter but it was only was approved for ratification by parliament on 19 March 2019.
It is now waiting for approval by Senate and signing by the president before it is domesticated.
Although the country will only go for general elections in 2023, there have been By-Elections which have been disputed as the opposition accuse the ruling party, Zanu-PF of applying undemocratic means to attain victory.
“What Zanu-PF has decided to do is to invest more on various intimidatory tactics that have in effect engineered a lot of fear in the rural electorate.
“Indeed, it is crucial to consider the outcome of the three by-elections, in the context of the following decisive factors among others,” said the party’s Secretary for Election, Jacob Mafume.
The MDC has on several occasions also accused the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of siding with Zanu-PF thereby hampering democratic electoral processes.
Last year, the commission came under heavy criticism following a disputed Presidential election results which the MDC claims to have won.
The dispute resulted in the death of six lives after the opposition protested over the delay in the release of election results although ZEC was still within the stipulated five working days to release the results
However, on their part, ZEC said they are embarking on a rebranding exercise in order to earn public trust and move away from the ghost of 2018.
This is despite the public clamouring for electoral reforms which the Commission say will most likely be done by August 2020.
“Our public relations and communications strategy certainly could be better so we want to bring on board a whole consultancy firm to look at how we can rebrand and then approach a number of stakeholders when we have given them our ideas on what we envisage from the particular firm in developing and ensuring that we brand ZEC so that we have a better image to present,” ZEC Commissioner, Joyce Letitia Kazembe said.
