Chigumba and the Entire Commission Will Pack their Bags by 2021: Madhuku

Letwin Mubonesi

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is set to undergo rehab together with its chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba and fellow commissioners. They are expected to be forced out by 2021 paving way for a neutral team to run the 2023 general elections.

National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) leader Lovemore Madhuku, who is part of Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) confirmed that Chigumba will not be part of the commissioners who will run the 2023 general elections and that the entire commission will pack its bags by 2021.
“She (Justice Chigumba) will not be there in 2023, you can get it from us, she was appointed, she will have to resign or somewhat compensated, but 2023 elections will not be run by a chairperson who was appointed by the President.

In the 2023 elections, the whole commission will be appointed by a body of politicians who are players. That is the reform that we want. We actually want the Constitution to be amended. To have a conference of political actors to endorse the commission,” Madhuku said.

This is as a result of the ever increasing noise and demands by the likes of Nelson Chamisa-led Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and other opposition parties who have since accused has accused ZEC of being biased in handling of the designing and printing of ballot papers, allocation of polling stations materials and management of the voters roll. Madhuku said POLAD was concerned about ZEC and was, therefore, moving to flush out problematic areas in the electoral management body.

“The second thing to change is to ensure that ZEC is not only independent, but has to be seen to be independent so we are going to be changing the appointment process, the chairperson of the ZEC must not be appointed by the President or the President in consultation with so and so; no, no, no,”

“That person must be approved by a platform of political actors, so POLAD is going to appoint the chairperson of the electoral commission of the 2023 elections; that will be a massive change. For you to be chairperson of ZEC you must get the buy-in of POLAD and that is one of the reforms that we are going to put.

The President can appoint all the other things, but not the people who run elections, that was the mistake of 2018,” Madhuku said.
“We are not worried about the security actors in ZEC, they will all be removed, that is what POLAD is all about. There are people who think POLAD is a play field and it has no teeth, they will see that it has.

We are going to remove the entire thing, for the 2023 elections you must enjoy the confidence of POLAD, including those who will come in wanting to contest the 2023 elections and this must be in place by 2021. We must actually have in place a new ZEC” he said.

Zimbabwe Elections Support Network (Zesn), which has since petitioned Parliament for electoral reforms, has also developed a tracker which will note all reforms, particularly those raised in line with recommendations made by electoral observer missions who observed the 2018 general elections. Key among the recommendations captured by ZESN in a compendium of 100 recommendations is the transmission of results, fair media coverage and electoral malpractices.

Madhuku said all this will be dealt with as POLAD moves to reform State-controlled media and public broadcasters.
“We want to have an environment where everyone has access to the public media, access to radio, access to ZTV because they are the most widespread, that must be done. In the last election, if you were not a Zanu PF candidate you got a maximum of a stage-managed interview where the ZBC interviewers would try to downgrade you as a politician, whereas the other player who is the President ED would be on television every day, that is the first thing to change.”

Zanu PF representative at POLAD and also a politburo member Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana said his party was unaware of any push to fire ZEC commissioners or reform the commission.

“I am not aware of any meeting that such an item was on the agenda. I have lots of respect for Professor Madhuku, but we have never had that issue on the agenda. If Zanu PF wants to reform ZEC, it will certainly not discuss that with the media,” Mangwana said.