Former Zanu PF MP and minister Jonathan Moyo says the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has failed to discharge its constitutional responsibility to run elections efficiently, transparently and competently, describing its performance in yesterday and today’s polls as a “monumental failure”.
Read Moyo’s post below:
UNPRECEDENTED MIDNIGHT ELECTION PROCLAMATION EXTENDS POLLING DAY FROM 23 TO 24 AUG, CREATING MORE PROBLEMS THAN IT SOLVES
In a major and unprecedented development in Zimbabwe’s electoral history, @edmnangagwa
has – further to the 30 May 2023 election proclamation – issued a midnight proclamation extending polling day after a chaotic harmonised general election characterised by massive voter suppression, especially but not only in urban areas, notably in Bulawayo and Harare.
While the proclamation extends voting for the affected wards which are listed on the schedule to the proclamation, there are some key aspects of the proclamation that are not clear, and some of them that are concerning.
1. It’s not clear whether the proclamation seeks to extend the time for polling stations that started late their “continuous 12 hours” between last night and the wee hours this morning; or it seeks to give the affected polling stations a fresh “12 hours” this morning.
2. Regardless of whether the proclamation extends the 12 hours overnight from the time the polling stations ostensibly opened late yesterday, or it gives them a fresh opportunity to start a new 12 hours in the wee hours this morning, there’s just no credible way that all or even most of the affected voters will know about the midnight proclamation.
3. The unpalatable, unfortunate and unavoidable fact is that the affected voters failed to vote not because of an earthquake or because of some other natural disaster, rather, they did not vote because they were denied to vote by vested political interests that were bent on using the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to disenfranchise citizens who are registered voters through voter suppression.
4. Unfortunately, this midnight proclamation does not cure the ugly voter suppression that was witnessed yesterday. If anything, the proclamation is a continuation of the same voter suppression, whose objective was aforethought and manifest, not least because the proclamation has come out at midnight – purporting to be enabling affected voters in the voting queues to vote until the wee hours this morning – when many and certainly some of them might be asleep.
5. It stands to reason that the wards and the provinces listed on the schedule of the proclamation as those that were affected by the voter suppression yesterday have come the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. That being the case, it must be said that the list is disappointing in or for its inexplicable exclusion of wards in Bulawayo which had polling stations that were affected just like and some even worse than their counterparts in Harare and elsewhere.
6. Why does the proclamation not have even one affected polling station in Bulawayo? The exclusion is mind boggling and brings into sharp question the integrity and credibility of the proclamation, from an equity point of view. To put it simply and clearly, the exclusion of some badly affected polling stations in wards in Bulawayo is discriminatory of voters who are in the same situation and who have suffered the same voter suppression as those in wards that have been specified in the proclamation.
7. Last but not least, the fact that some polling stations will be counting their votes and announcing the results, while elsewhere around the country other polling stations will be voting, creates a challenging situation never before witnessed in Zimbabwe’s electoral experience. In other comparable jurisdictions, when something as drastic as the voter suppression that was seen yesterday happens, the responsible authorities set aside the elections in the affected areas and organises bye-elections for them.
8. All told, the election as a whole has become too tainted, too poisoned and too compromised as to be incapable of producing a credible outcome with integrity. Again,this is not because of any natural disaster, or any untoward conduct by voter, but it is because of a monumental failure by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to discharge its constitutional responsibility under section 239(a) of the Constitution of the Republic of Zimbabwe which mandates the Commission to conduct elections “efficiently, freely, fairly, transparently and in accordance with the law”!
Source Byo24News
