The Portfolio Committee on Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has urged Parliament to conduct wide stakeholder engagements before crafting Bills so that all relevant issues are incorporated.
This recommendation follows the virtual public hearings that were conducted by the committee to discuss the Electoral Amendment Bill.
On January 30, the public hearings were conducted on National FM and Star FM radio stations, and on January 31, a consultation meeting was done via zoom.
Ordinarily, physical public hearings are held throughout to gather citizens’ views.
A report compiled by the committee was presented by Member of Parliament for Makoni South, Misheck Mataranyika, in Parliament early this month.
The Bill, which was gazetted on November 18, sought to address, among other issues, the removal of a driver’s license as one of the documents to be used as proof of identity for electoral purposes since some driver’s licenses do not reflect citizenry.
It also sought the requirement for every candidate to make a solemn declaration in a nomination form or that he or she is not convicted of a disqualifying offence, to set a time limit that candidates will not be allowed to withdraw less than 21 days before polling and that notices of withdrawal will have to be sent to the Chief Elections Officer of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
“The Committee recommends that there be wide stakeholder engagement should take place before all Bills are crafted to ensure that all issues are incorporated. The ZESN Draft Electoral Bill referred to by some members of the public may have to be looked at, together with the Bill considering that Parliament was involved in the process of drafting the Bill. Also, features on a driver’s license must be improved so that a driver’s license becomes an acceptable and official identification document,” the report read.
The committee noted the need for Parliament to consider undertaking both virtual and
physical public hearings on Bills of public interest and where virtual meetings are held there is a need to increase security to avoid interruptions.
“In as much as virtual hearings have their challenges, however, a wide coverage can also be reached. Parliament must improve the security of meetings on the zoom platform. Although there were concerns over the virtual public hearings, pertinent issues were raised by the participants who made submissions,’ the report read.
“Individual members of the public, as well as civic society organisations, managed to make meaningful submissions on radio, on zoom, via emails and messages to Parliament. The Committee, therefore, believes that passing this Bill after strong consideration of the views of the people and their recommendations will help to shape our electoral laws and processes, with the basic concepts of transparency and inclusivity that lie at the heart of the country’s democracy and sovereignty.”
