MAZOWE South Zanu PF legislator Fortune Chasi (pictured) has proposed that the ruling party and opposition MDC-T should engage the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to run their primary elections to deal with numerous complaints of malpractices within the parties.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
Chasi said it was important that internal party polls were handled in a professional way so that selection of candidates was done smoothly.
Aspiring candidates, both in Zanu PF and MDC-T, have cried foul over the selection of candidates by their respective parties.
“It’s my personal view that it will enhance the cause of democracy,” Chasi said on the side-lines of an Electoral Amendment Bill workshop organised by the Election Resources Centre (ERC).
“If you have been noticing in the Press, there is a lot of intra-party mayhem around these primaries and I think we need to review this particular situation and it happens in South Africa for example.
“Their equivalent of Zec runs the primaries and political parties in general don’t have that expertise and if we were to expand the mandate of Zec to cover the situation, it will enhance our electoral processes,” he said.
Chasi said, in some instances, internal polls subverted democracy.
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He said there were issues, especially regarding the participation of women in politics.
In some cases, the 50-50 representation spoken about by most political parties in the country are not implemented.
“I think it’s something that needs to be managed properly to ensure that the constitutional requirement becomes a reality, but we need to consider incisively how we can do it, and maybe learn from our neighbours who are using it,” he said.
Asked if the practice was acceptable and whether it will not infringe on Zec’s mandate, Chasi said the option was just worth trying.
“I think parties can still continue to have control of their parties, except that the electoral malpractices that we don’t want at the national level will not happen at the intra-party level. We need to reason around that and see if it is workable,” he said.
