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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Inclusive government - Index of articles
Spotlight on inclusive government: It's not working - Index of articles
Stage
for elections still flawed - experts
Radio
VOP
April 07, 2009
http://www.radiovop.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5949&Itemid=171
President Robert Mugabe
can still easily steal the next Presidential and parliamentary elections
scheduled to be held in two years as he has retained unlimited powers
to influence the polls, it has emerged.
Experts of constitutional
law are concerned that despite the country's Lancaster House constitution
having been amended with the approval of the opposition, President
Mugabe still enjoys powers to appoint an electoral commission of
his choice and play around with the voters' roll without much hindrance.
Although the
just enacted Amendment
No 19 increased the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission from seven
to nine members and created more gender balance, their appointments,
as before, are still entirely at the discretion of the President.
Independent lawyers say
it is in the wording of the Act that leaves it open for manipulation
as it states that the President, "after consultation"
with the Judiciary Services Commission and Committee on Standing
Rules and Orders of Parliament appoints the commission.
President Mugabe appoints
members of the Judiciary Service Commission and has set up a docile
judiciary through the appointment and promotion of his loyalists.
"Section 14 of the
amendment clearly states that "after consultations" means
that the person required to consult before arriving at a decision
makes the consultation but is not bound by the advice or opinion
given by the person consulted.
"Instead,
it should have been "in consultation" as it makes the
President legally bound to first seek the agreement or consent before
making such decisions," explained Kucaca Phulu a prominent
Bulawayo lawyer with the Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights, a non governmental organisation.
He said as long as the
President appoints an official at his sole discretion, and where
he or his party are candidates, the independence of that official
will always be in question.
"What is needed
is for a public process of nomination and appointment with the President
only required for the ceremonial installation of the commissioners,"
he said.
Phulu says it is also
regrettable that the agreed amendment also allows for an authority
other than the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to register voters.
"The position of
the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights is clear as to the lack of
independence and accountability of the office of the registrar-general.
"Blame can squarely
be placed on the registrar general for the deplorable state of the
voters' roll and the failure to ensure that a comprehensive, transparent
and independent registration is carried out. The amendment did not
make any changes in relation to this office and therefore there
will still be a lack of transparency and violation of the rights
of voters," he said.
Self declared Zanu (PF)
loyalist and close relative of President Mugabe, Tobaiwa Mudede,
has been and is still at helm of the registrar eneral's office since
independence in 1980.
He has in the past been
accused on several occasions of manipulating the voters' roll and
creating ghost voters, but vehemently denies the allegations.
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