THE president of the Mozambican National Elections Commission (CNE), Joao Leopoldo da Costa, has urged the Zimbabwe Election Commission (Zec) to be impartial, ethical and professional in handling elections.
Report by Everson Mushava
Da Costa said transparency would reduce electoral violence. He was addressing a Zec workshop on conflict management held in Harare yesterday.
“As an election body, you do not belong to a political party,” da Costa said. “Your role is not to become a political commissar of a political party. You should be completely impartial to improve the democracy in your country.”
Zec has come under fierce criticism from civic groups and political parties for allegedly siding with Zanu PF.
In 2008, it took Zec six weeks to release presidential election results and observers claimed the electoral body could have been doctoring results to facilitate a presidential runoff in which President Robert Mugabe was the sole contestant after MDC-T’s Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew citing violence. The results were rejected by the international community, forcing the current coalition government.
Recently, the MDCs demanded the restructuring of the Zec secretariat, arguing that it was heavily compromised in favourt of Zanu PF.
“There should be constant dialogue between Zec and election stakeholders. There is need to develop people’s confidence in the electoral processes for election results to be trusted,” da Costa said.
