ZIMBABWE Electoral Commission (Zec) chairperson Justice Rita Makarau yesterday challenged political parties to expose partisan members of the electoral body’s secretariat and pledged to crack the whip on the culprits.
Report by Moses Matenga
Makarau made the remarks after meeting political party leaders in Harare following complaints that some members of the Zec secretariat were biased towards Zanu PF.
“I have heard about that complaint. This is not the first time I am hearing about it. I have not been given any concrete example of bias and I invite those with concerns of bias to come forward. It doesn’t matter that some of them have an army background or what, what we expect is professionalism from them. If anyone is showing bias, he or she must leave the organisation,” Makarau said.
The MDCs and other opposition parties have often claimed that the Zec secretariat was staffed with State security agents, most of whom were known Zanu PF “sympathisers”.
The parties have called for a purge of the secretariat to get rid of alleged biased officials.
“We listened to their concerns and we will sit and interrogate each and every one of them and will give answers to some, if not all, of their concerns,” she said. Turning to announcement of election results, Makarau said: “The law is clear on who announces the results. The results are announced by one person and one person alone, so as it stands on the CEO (Lovemore Sekeramayi). The law criminalises anyone who attempts to do that.” During the meeting, political parties complained of the voters’ roll with Zanu PF and the MDC-T alleging irregularities in the roll. “We got a convergence that what we needed was a clean voters’ roll as possible. We don’t want people to doubt the election right at the beginning,” Zanu PF politburo member Sydney Sekeramayi said. “Our concern is when you get people being registered under one house and clearly the number is more than what the house can accommodate, we begin to question the motive. These are areas that distort the voters’ roll and need to be addressed.” The MDC-T was represented by its chairman Lovemore Moyo, his deputy Morgan Komichi, organising secretary Nelson Chamisa and spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora. The meeting with political parties was Makarau’s first since her appointment as Zec chairperson after taking over from Justice Simpson Mutambanengwe who resigned early this year.
