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What needs to be done prior to elections in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Election Support Network
April 16, 2013
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The referendum
on a new constitution for Zimbabwe took place on March 16, 2013,
and the result
was an overwhelming “YES” in favour of the proposed
new basic law of the land. This result was not surprising, but the
high turnout was. The constitutional draft has now been gazetted
and when the formal gazettement period has come to an end, the document
will be presented in Parliament,
where it will be passed easily. From there, it will eventually get
the presidential signature and only then will Zimbabwe formally
have a new constitution.
At that point,
elections conducted according to the new constitution will be on
the agenda. On what date the elections can take place is presently
unclear. What is clear, though, is that the Electoral
Act must be amended before many election preparations can even
begin. The reason is that the constitution – when finally
in force – will change the way Parliament, provincial councils
and local councils are elected.
Prior to the
implementation of the constitution, a number of politically delicate
issues must be looked into. Decisions on these issues will be a
precondition for organizing the new elections. To name a few of
these examples, it is unclear as to what proportional representation
(PR) system shall be used. It is also unclear how many candidates
that political parties will be required to have on their party lists
and whether those candidates will be allowed to stand in one or
more races.
Moreover, some
PR systems tend to be better for larger parties than for smaller
one, while it is the other way round for other PR systems. Other
PR electoral systems tend to be more balanced. As opinion polls
indicate that the next election might be a tight race, the choice
of PR system might decide who will control the next parliament!
This situation
can best be characterised as unfinished business by the politicians
and it means that political parties in Zimbabwe cannot hold their
primaries and decide on their candidates until they know what the
rules of the game(s) will be. It will also not be possible to hold
Nomination Courts and the Zimbabwean Election Commission (ZEC) cannot
seriously start to prepare for the election, including the procurement
of ballot papers!
The many radical
changes in the entire electoral machinery will also put a lot of
pressure on ZEC, as well as civil society, because there is a burning
need to provide information about the new electoral systems. One
example will be voters asking, “Why will we not be voting
for Senate in the way we used to?” or “Why is there
no ballot papers to use in the contest for Senate?”
The next section
of the article digs a little deeper into why the Electoral Act has
to be amended, and then a subsequent section details what should
be considered before deciding on a PR system. Other important issues,
like multiple candidacies and the election of persons with disabilities,
are discussed in the later sections.
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