The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) believes that public consultations on the Electoral Amendment Bill should be redone because the proposed legislation falls short of what people expected.
The Electoral Amendment Bill was gazetted on November 18, 2022, to fully align the Electoral Act with Zimbabwe’s Constitution, amended earlier this year (Constitution Amendment No. 2 Act).
On the other hand, the opposition insists on certain provisions of the Electoral Amendment Bill, demonstrating a lack of political will to implement comprehensive electoral reforms.
In an interview with CITE, CCC interim Bulawayo provincial interim spokesperson, Swithern Chirowodza said public consultations were not really done despite being in line with the constitution.
“Section 141 of the Constitution is clear that when Parliament is conducting its businesses, what concerns the public, has to consult widely in that regard by undertaking public consultations,” he said, noting that the Electoral Amendment Bill failed to encompass the electoral reforms that the general public was expecting.
“The bill lacks the provisions we were expecting and therefore it comes short of bringing the change we want to see in Zimbabwe.”
Chirowodza said it was laughable that the responsible parliamentary committee for gathering views on the Electoral Amendment Bill said it conducted hearings on the radio.
“Currently there is massive load shedding and as such, most areas have no ZBC transmission. Without electricity, the public does not have access to radio and as such, it means no access to these consultations. Secondly, the hearings were also done virtually excluding those who cannot afford data to stay online,” he said, claiming a majority of the population was “deliberately excluded.”
The CCC provincial spokesperson said because of this disenfranchisement, the public hearings should be redone to include all the views of the general population.
“Elections play a major role in this country and the proposed electoral laws have to promote the democratic ethos and that should be done in a process that gives confidence,” Chirowodza said and added there are many clauses contained in the Electoral Amendment Bill that if not addressed, will not develop the country.
A fortnight ago, Member of Parliament for Mutare Central, Innocent Gonese, called upon the Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry to withdraw the proposed Electoral Amendment Bill, claiming it was hastily drafted. At the same time, some stakeholders’ views were ignored, and also contains inadequate improvements, which fail to address the concerns of all Zimbabweans.
Some of the proposed amendments are outlawing the use of driver’s licences as proof of identity by persons who register as voters (Clause 2b), prevent nominations of persons who have been convicted of certain offences (clauses 7, 9) and set a time limit for the withdrawal of constituency candidates (clauses 8 and 10).
The Electoral Amendment Bill has also been criticised for drawing on the Constitutional Number 2 amendments which are currently pending at the Constitutional Court, of which should the Constitutional Court find that the two Amendment Acts were invalidly passed then the Constitution must be regarded as never having been amended, meaning most of the provisions of this Electoral Amendment Bill will fall away.
For example, the provisions for electing youth members of the National Assembly will be inapplicable because the unamended Constitution did not provide for youth members, the same goes for the women members of provincial councils and local authorities.
