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NewsDay

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Hooligans disrupt Parly public hearings

Politics
Disruptions of public hearings conducted by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs by some rowdy political elements in societyhave become a habit. It is barely two months after the disruptions of the public hearings on the Zimbabwe Human Rights Amendment Bill, yet the same political party fingered as perpetrators of […]

Disruptions of public hearings conducted by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs by some rowdy political elements in societyhave become a habit.

It is barely two months after the disruptions of the public hearings on the Zimbabwe Human Rights Amendment Bill, yet the same political party fingered as perpetrators of that violence, Zanu PF, has again been fingered in the recent confusion during public hearings on the Electoral Amendment Bill.

This has raised a lot of questions in the minds of Zimbabweans as to why political parties have an interest in the Electoral Amendment Bill to the extent of intimidating people from making meaningful contributions as to what they wanted included in the Bill.

According to analysts, the Electoral Amendment Bill brought before Parliament seeks to repeal the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Act and incorporate its provisions into the Electoral Act in a way that will both consolidate and amend the Bills.

The main provisions in the Bill will include that it will base voting at polling station level, where voters will vote at their nearest polling station rather than at any polling station in their constituency.

It also wants to ensure there is availability of the electronic voters’ rolls in analysable format, restrict postal voting to those outside Zimbabwe on government business and enable electoral officers and security sector personnel away from constituencies to cast their votes in advance of the election, in a process to be run by the electoral management body.

Other provisions are that the Bill seeks to introduce greater transparency in the counting and collation of votes at all levels, introduce mechanisms for the prevention of political violence and intimidation, extend the jurisdiction of the Electoral Court, as well as ensuring that there is speedy announcement of presidential election results.

There are also important provisions whereby the Bill seeks to provide access to the voters’ roll in printed or electronic format to the public and political parties contesting the election at an affordable fee.

The MDC-T has already said it will oppose some of the provisions in the Electoral Amendment Bill in its current form as they did not really promote people’s freedoms.

Douglas Mwonzora, also the MDC-T spokesperson, said although some of the provisions were acceptable, there were still others that his party felt should be changed or improved.

“There are certain items in the Electoral Amendment Bill that the MDC-T is not happy with, but the party is not saying the Bill must not be crafted.

“We are not happy about the way issues of political violence during the elections are being handled in the proposed Bill, because we are concerned about polling station-based voting as it makes it possible for people at a particular constituency to be victimised after voting.

“The MDC-T is also worried about the safety of voters and feels that voters should be allowed to cast their votes anywhere they want,” Mwonzora said. Analysts have said political violence and intimidation are barriers to free and fair elections as they prevent political parties from campaigning in a free and fair environment.

They said violence also drove voters away from their wards of domain where they are registered and invariably prohibited them from voting for a political party or candidate of their choice.

But according to Clause 33 of the Electoral Amendment Bill, the Bill seeks to deal with violence, which has marred most of Zimbabwe’s elections.

“Political parties, members, supporters and candidates are enjoined to promote conditions conducive for free, fair and democratic elections and accept that others have the right to represent their political principles and ideas in a peaceful environment without intimidation or fear of reprisal,” reads the Bill.

The Bill further seeks to empower the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission in consultation with ZEC to establish a committee to investigate cases of violence so that perpetrators may be prosecuted and that the police, judiciary and the Attorney General’s office shall establish special structures to deal with political violence.

Although the Bill seeks to curb electoral violence, disruptions of the public hearing on the Electoral Amendment Bill took place in Mutare and Masvingo where Zanu PF supporters allegedly perpetrated the disturbances.

Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa has denied the allegations that there has been coaching and bussing in of Zanu PF supporters to cause disturbances.

“I actually attended some of the public hearings and they were very peaceful. One of the meetings was in my constituency, Headlands and it was not disturbed. Our party Zanu PF is part of the Parliamentarians conducting the public hearings and I do not see how we can cause disruptions during the public hearings,” said Mutasa.

He said his party position on the Electoral Amendment Bill was the position which the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa, who brought the Bill before the House of Assembly, would take.