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Electoral
body ignores MDC call on election boundaries
Sebastian Nyamhangambiri, ZimOnline
November 26, 2007
http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2372
HARARE - The Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) says it is will press ahead with demarcation
of constituencies for next year's elections despite pleas by the
opposition to shelve the exercise until the conclusion of talks
with the ruling ZANU PF party.
ZEC public relations
director Shupikai Mashereni said the commission had the "legal
mandate" to prepare for the polls including drawing up constituency
boundaries, adding it would only stop doing so if ordered by the
government.
"We work according
to the law and as things stand, we have the legal mandate to draw
the (constituency) boundaries," Mashereni told ZimOnline at
the weekend.
"We will only stop
when we are told to or if the law changes," the ZEC official
said, adding that it was only reasonable that the commission starts
its work now or it would fail to meet deadlines.
The opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) party led by Morgan Tsvangirai has called
on ZEC to delay the delimitation of constituencies, saying while
the commission had the mandate to demarcate constituencies, its
composition was still subject for discussion at the ongoing talks
with the ruling ZANU PF party.
The MDC and ZANU PF are
engaged in talks under South African mediation aimed at resolving
Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis. A key objective of the
talks is to ensure next year's joint presidential and parliamentary
polls are free and fair.
A constitutional amendment
enacted by the government last August with backing from the MDC
among other key provisions empowers the ZEC to take over registration
of voters, demarcation of constituencies and overall management
of elections.
However, the MDC says
the spirit of the constitutional amendment was that a new commission
and not a "sanitised" version of the existing one be appointed
to register voters, demarcate constituencies and oversee preparations
for next year's elections.
The MDC accuses the current
ZEC led by former soldier and High Court judge George Chiweshe of
bias in favour of President Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF, a charge
the commission denies.
Postponing demarcation
of constituencies until conclusion of inter-party talks could mean
moving the polls to a date later than the scheduled March.
Zimbabwe is in the grip
of a debilitating economic crisis that is highlighted by the world's
highest inflation rate of nearly 8 000 percent, a rapidly contracting
GDP, the fastest for a country not at war according to the World
Bank and shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel.
Political analysts believe
truly democratic polls next year are a key requirement to any initiative
to pluck Zimbabwe out of an ever-worsening political and economic
crisis.
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