The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) on Thursday handed the Electoral Amendment Bill to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice suggesting electoral reforms.
The document contains the election lobby’s recommended electoral reforms which the country has to implement.
ZESN board chairperson Andrew Makoni gave a presentation on some of the changes which include that Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) must compile and issue an election time table after liaising with multi-party liaison committees. Makoni said:
The proposed amendments suggest cleaning up of the voters’ roll so that it is done in a transparent manner.
They also suggest that the commission (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) should provide voter education, and also encourage other persons and organisations to provide voter education.
The recommendations come ahead of the elections scheduled for 2023. Previous elections, 2018, were heavily contested with the opposition MDC Alliance accusing ZEC of conniving with the ruling ZANU PF to manipulate results in favour of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The Constitutional Court, however, declared Mnangagwa the winner of the election after the MDC Alliance had “failed to prove any possibility of election manipulation.”
Nelson Chamisa who leads MDC Alliance vowed in 2019 that “there will be no election” if electoral elections are not implemented first to ensure there is a level playing field.
Some political analysts have also said the opposition in the country and other stakeholders should push for reforms in time than wait for the eleventh hour, as usual.