Senate on Thursday passed the Electoral Amendment Bill and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill clearing the way for free and fair elections in the country.
The two Bills, products of inter-party talks, now await President Robert Mugabe’s assent before they become law.
The Electoral Amendment Bill stipulates that presidential elections results should be announced within five days of voting, a provision designed to avoid a repeat of 2008 where results were delayed by close to a month.
Justice and Legal Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa took the Bills to Senate after steering them through the House of Assembly in the past two weeks.
Chitungwiza Senator James Makore (MDC-T) challenged the clause on polling station-based voting saying it would compromise the secrecy of the vote.
“The problem is that persons in an area know other people’s political affiliations and my perception is that polling station- based voting does interfere with the secrecy of the vote,” he said.
“We observe that when a person casts a vote, they may need to show the presiding officer the watermark of a ballot paper as part of the audited material.
“But I believe this is interference in the secrecy of the ballot because before people were threatened it was possible to see which party one had voted for.”
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On the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill, Emganwini Senator Siphiwe Ncube (MDC-T) challenged the imposition of a clause limiting the mandate of the commission to investigating rights violations committed after February 2009.
“What will happen to those who were killed during Gukurahundi?
“What do you say about those people whose relatives were killed and this Bill is suggesting that we have to start from 2009?
“Do we have to forget and say it is the past?
“Of course, this Bill will pass through this House and people will support it, but personally I do not support that,” she said.
Zaka Senator Misheck Marava (MDC-T) also demanded an explanation from Chinamasa as to how abuses that happened before 2009 would be dealt with.
“We cannot sweep some things under the carpet and we need clarity from the minister on how this country will manage issues that occurred prior to February 13, 2009,”he said.
Chinamasa said the draft constitution had provisions for the creation of a National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, whose task was to mediate, foresee, focus, and scan the political environment to see where possible conflicts were likely to arise so as to intervene timeously.
Mugabe has been demanding elections this year, but the two MDC formations have insisted on electoral reforms first.
