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How independent is the new ZEC?
 Elias Rusike
January 23, 2005

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/read.php?st_id=1528

THE Zimbabwe Parliament recently passed an Act which creates the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Act is now Law after the President assented recently. But how independent is the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission? In order to answer this question, it is important to examine what is on the ground.

Currently, there are four bodies which are associated with elections. These are; The Electoral Supervisory Commission; The Registrar General of Elections; The Electoral Directorate and The Delimitation Commission.

The Electoral Supervisory Commission and the Delimitation Commission are constitutional bodies established under the present Zimbabwe Constitution. The Registrar General of Elections and the Electoral Directorate are Statutory Bodies created under Electoral Law by Parliament. Likewise, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is a statutory body created by Parliament.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is supposed to take over functions currently being performed by the Registrar General and Election Directorate which are operating. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has three main functions: It will prepare and conduct elections of the President and Parliament as well as elections to the governing bodies of local authorities; and referendums.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is supposed to ensure that those elections and referendums are conducted efficiently, freely, fairly, transparently, and in accordance with the law; and to direct and control the registration of voters by the authority charged with that responsibility under an Act of Parliament.

The body is also supposed to:

  • To compile voters' rolls and registers;
  • To ensure the proper custody and maintenance of voters' rolls and registers;
  • To design, print and distribute ballot papers, approve the form and procure ballot boxes, and establish and operate polling centers;
  • To conduct voter education;
  • To give instructions to - the Registrar General in regard to the exercise of his or her functions under the Electoral Act; and other persons in the employment of the state or of local authority for the purpose of ensuring the efficient, proper, free and fair conduct of elections; and to exercise any other functions that may be conferred or imposed on the Commission by the Electoral Act or any other enactment.

It is clear from what I have said that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will be subservient to the Electoral Supervisory Commission, which was appointed entirely by the President. In fact, the Electoral Supervisory Commission will supervise the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. It is the Electoral Supervisory Commission and not Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, which will pronounce the freeness and fairness of the elections.

The notion that you can create a statutory body like the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and retain two Constitutional bodies like the Electoral Supervisory Commission and the Delimitation Commission both of which have responsibilities over elections is nonsense to say the least. According to the current practice, the Electoral Supervisory Commission supervises the Registration of voters, the conduct of elections and it is the body which makes a report to Parliament. On the other hand the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will control the Registration of voters, conducts elections and reports to the Parliament through the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. The requirement that the commission's report goes to the Minister will compromise its impartiality.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is made up of five Commissioners with the chairperson being appointed by the President after consulting the Judicial Service Commission and four other members appointed by the President from a list of seven nominees submitted by the Parliamentary Committee on the Standing Rules and Orders.

The new Zimbabwe Electoral Commission members were announced on Thursday January 20, by the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa. They are High Court Judge and chairman of the Delimitation Commission, Justice George Mutandwa Chiweshe who shall also chair the new commission, Mrs. Sarah Kachingwe is the deputy chairperson, Mrs. Vivian Stella Ncube, Professor George Kahari and Reverend Jonathan Siyachitema are members of the commission.

The forthcoming 2005 Elections provided the opportunity to break with past practices by establishing a truly independent Electoral Commission. The only effective way of creating a truly Independent Electoral Commission was by way of amending the constitution and do away with current Electoral Supervisory Commission. If there was an issue where there should have been a convergence of views between the ruling party and the opposition parties, it was the establishment of a truly Independent Commission. Such a constitutional amendment would have been supported by all parties in parliament.

But the government through the Minister of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Chinamasa lacked political will to effect constitutional changes. He rejected what he called "the practice in the region (SADC) where the so-called independent bodies supervise themselves. The practice evolving in the region is that the bodies themselves appoint their own monitors; accredit their own observers and literally supervise themselves. As far as I am concerned, my conscience is clear we have created an Independent Electoral Commission" Mr Chinamasa told Parliament on December 9, 2004.

He went on to argue that "what we have created is a Mauritian Model. They have two electoral bodies - one which runs the elections and the other one which supervises", he concluded.

If the forth-coming elections are not seen and perceived as free and fair by the participating political parties the legitimacy of the Government elected under flawed Electoral rules will be questioned, and Zimbabwe will continue to be isolated by the International community.

What is on the ground is that Zimbabwe has not embraced SADC Principles and Guidelines governing Democratic Elections. The weakness of Chinamasa's electoral reforms is that they do not deal with issue of the Electoral environment. Both the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Act and the Electoral Act do not recognize elections as a process. Chinamasa and his ilk are concerned with elections as an event. Yet elections have to be prepared for over a long period of time.

For the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to be truly Independent, it should have its own infrastructure and not rely on the Registrar General's office and staff and the Electoral Directorate, which is made up of the army, the police and the senior civil servants who are highly politicized. There is absolutely no way one can conduct free and fair elections in a country where the opposition is denied access to the public media well before the event.

There is inadequate time now and 2005 elections, whether the elections are held in March or June 2005 for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to do its work properly and conduct free and fair elections which will be accepted and recognized by all participating parties and the international community. The new commissioners of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must acknowledge that they are members of a body, which is not independent. A body, which is subservient to the Zimbabwe Supervisory Commission and, a body which has to rely on the existing infrastructures of the Registrar General and the Electoral Directorate.

To answer the question, "How independent is the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission?" An Independent Electoral Commission by definition should be independent of the Executive - that is the President and the Minister. Unlike the Public Service Commission and the Judicial Service Commission which report to the Minister of Public Services, Labour and Social Welfare and Justice, Legal and Parliamentary affairs respectively, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission should report not to Parliament through the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary affairs but direct to a democratically elected Parliament. Its chairman should be the one to present the report to the Parliament or its committee. It should not be supervised by any other body especially the Electoral Supervisory Commission. It should be supervised by the Parliament itself. The new Zimbabwe Electoral Commission does not adhere to the letter and spirit of the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.

*Elias T Rusike - is a Media Consultant and former Publisher and CEO of the Financial Gazette. He can be contacted at rusikeet@mweb.co.zw

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