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The
issue of whether Whitecliff is part of Kuwadzana constituency or
not
Prisca
Mukwengi, Advocacy Officer
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)
January
16, 2003
In view of the
Daily News edition of 6 January 2003 which ran an article on the
inclusion of Whitecliff residents on the voters’ roll for Kuwadzana
by-election which will be held shortly, the following is ZESN’s
position on the matter.
Section 59 of
the Constitution provides that from time to time as may be
required for the purpose of the Constitution, the President shall
appoint a Delimitation Commission.
Section 60(1)
and proviso to the section reads that it shall be the function of
the Delimitation Commission to determine the limits of the constituencies
into which Zimbabwe is to be divided and that provided the President
notifies the Delimitation Commission of an anticipated alteration
in the number of constituencies, the Delimitation Commission shall
determine the limits of the anticipated number of constituencies.
Subsection (2)
states that Zimbabwe shall be divided into 120 common roll constituencies
and (3) reads that the boundaries of the constituencies shall be
such that at the time of Delimitation the number of voters registered
in each common roll constituency is nearly as may be equal to the
number of voters registered in each of the other the common roll
constituencies.
The Commission
will furnish a report to the President at the end of the exercise
after which the President will make a proclamation in the Gazette
declaring the names of the boundaries of the constituencies of Zimbabwe
which shall have effect for the purposes of the next and any subsequent
general election. Note there is no mention of by–election.
These are the
Constitutional provisions as far as the delimitation of constituencies
is concerned.
The Constitutional
provisions do not allude to a by-election. The electoral Act is
silent on the whole issue but since the report from the Delimitation
Commission is used in a "subsequent general election"
the same could be used for a by-election since there is no provision
for such.
As far as the
Whitecliff issue is concerned, the Delimitation which was done in
2000 general elections according to the Constitution prevails and
in the absence of any other Delimitation Commission having been
appointed by the President, the boundaries and the constituency
which was named as Kuwadzana remains unchanged until such time as
the President appoints another Commission.
Whitecliff should
remain as that part of the constituency declared to be such in the
2000 Delimitation report in Mashonaland West Province.
According to
the Delimitation Commission Report of 2000, the area called Zvimba
North in Mashonaland West Province covers
"the
western boundary of Gillingham to the northmost beacon of Whitecliff
thence generally southwards and south-eastwards along the north-eastern
boundary of Whitecliff and the eastern boundary of Heany to its
estearnmost beacon so as to include them"
The above quotation
is enough verify that Whitecliff does not belong to Kuwadzana constituency.
Visit
the ZESN fact
sheet
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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