The National Electoral Reforms Agenda (Nera) has approached Sadc, the African Union and the United Nations as part of efforts to force the government to reform the electoral system to level the playing field and ensure free and fair elections next year.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
This follows the recent fallout between the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) and political parties over the manner the country’s electoral management body was handling the proposed poll reform process.
Nera, a grouping of 13 political parties, wants Zec to facilitate voting by all Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, with the help of the regional and international community, in the 2018 general elections.
The Diaspora vote has become a thorny issue, with opposition political parties pushing for Zimbabweans living outside the country to be allowed to vote from their bases in line with the Constitution. But Zec insists that there was no legal framework allowing such voting to be conducted.
“Nera has submitted a letter to engage Zec, Sadc, AU, UN, regional and international embassies and other organisations to request for assistance with facilitation of the Diaspora vote. In addition, Nera has put together safeguards necessary to protect voters and their vote,” Nera said in a statement.
The legal team, led by MDC-T secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora, said the Zanu PF-led government was dithering when it came to implementing constitutional reforms for the benefit of holding on to power and, therefore, the need to engage outsiders to help.
“Years later the ruling party continues to delay and circumvent the issue of electoral reform. The prevailing socio-political and economic crisis in the country is an outcome of the legitimacy crisis that has haunted the ruling party due to the persistent electoral manipulation,” Nera said.
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Nera wants the Diaspora vote to be implemented in the 2018 general elections. It is pushing for a clean biometric voters’ register (BVR), managed by Zec which could be provided upon request in machine-readable format as a precondition for a legitimate election.
“The voters’ roll must be made public to allow proper verification of all listed voters … Independent biometric technical support must be used to verify and check the authenticity of the BVR system,” Nera’s letter to Sadc read.
Mwonzora said Nera was in the process of mounting a court challenge on the Diaspora vote as they continued to mount pressure on Zec.
