|
Back to Index
Zimbabwe
ballot group says March 2008 elections coming up fast
Carole
Gombakomba, Voice of America (VOA)
October 17, 2007
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/Zimbabwe/2007-10-17-voa43.cfm
The head of
the Zimbabwe Election
Support Network, which fielded thousands of ballot monitors
in the country's 2005 general election, said Wednesday that time
is running short for the country to get ready for national elections
set for March 2008.
ZESN Chairman Noel Kututwa
said much more needs to be done in terms of election reform and
logistical preparations for the elections to be seen as free and
fair.
The group says that although
the ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change both backed an amendment to the constitution effecting major
changes to the electoral landscape, many changes are needed to electoral
laws. The amendment legislation still awaits signature by President
Robert Mugabe.
Meanwhile, Oct. 31 deadline
for the conclusion of South African-mediated crisis talks is coming
up fast, and the MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai is threatening
to exit the talks over what it says is a state campaign of violence
against its members. The two sides in the talks are still haggling
over a large number of electoral issues.
The Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission says it is stepping up election preparations - its chief
elections officer, Lovemore Moyo, told a parliamentary committee
that it has given the Ministry of Finance a budget, but did not
disclose further details.
The commission said it
has written to the Office of the Registrar General, from which it
recently took over the task of voter registration, requesting various
materials and said it is filling up vacancies so that it has its
own staff to manage those responsibilities.
VOA could not reach a
ZEC spokesman for comment on its preparations.
ZESN Chairman Noel Kututwa
told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
with time short the outlook for orderly elections is not bright.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
