The Sunday Mail
Hon Patrick Chinamasa
I’m speaking as Secretary for Legal Affairs for Zanu-PF, former chief negotiator in the negotiations with the MDC formations, as well as former Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
What I’m going to say is a factual statement on the collaboration that took place between Zanu-PF and the MDC formations in 2008 with respect to creating a level playing field for all political parties.
And of course, most of the concerns were coming from the MDC formations.
I will give you a rundown so far as I remember.
For instance, there were concerns about who manned polling stations, and we were all agreed that representatives of all political parties and candidates participating should be in the polling station to ensure that there is no cheating that takes place inside the polling station. This means they sit in the polling station and watch the process of voting as it takes place.
We also agreed what distance campaigning could be done from polling stations.
In addition, we agreed that votes were to be counted at polling stations after the close of voting, and that the counting in the presence of representatives of candidates and political parties must be signed for to indicate the correctness of the counting.
We also agreed that the announcement of the outcome must be done at the polling station and that the results of voting at a polling station must be posted outside the station for everyone to see.
We also agreed collation of votes from polling stations to the constituency command centre and we agreed how that was to be done.
Further, we agreed that in elections after the 2013 elections, registration of voters and actual voting would be polling station-specific unlike before when I could vote at any polling station in my constituency.
This time you register at a polling station and then you can only vote at that particular polling station. This is to avoid any possibility of double voting.
We further agreed that registration of voters and compilation of the voters’ roll would be done by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and not the Registrar-General’s Office. We agreed that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission would do the delimitation of constituencies as required by the Constitution.
Another aspect of voting that we all agreed on was that a Presidential candidate must achieve 50 percent-plus-one to win.
We also agreed that political parties participating in the election, once known, will have an oversight role in the printing of ballot papers, as well as oversight of distribution of ballot papers.
What it means is that we agreed that the number of ballot papers printed must be made known to participating political parties.
We agreed – not that it was a problem – that there should be no serving members of the uniformed forces working for ZEC. There never have been serving members working for ZEC, but of course there could be one or two retired members. You can’t stop people developing another career after they retire from their jobs.
We also agreed the composition of ZEC itself; that Parliament was to have a role in the election and appointment of commissioners. Parliament now interviews persons to be appointed to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
So all these issues, all these matters were embodied in the electoral reforms that we all co-sponsored and enacted into law.
These electoral laws were reinforced by provisions in the Constitution that address issues pertaining to elections. You recall that we brought in proportional representation, and we brought in the women’s quota in the Constitution for representation in Parliament.
So the point I’m making is that the MDCs have no basis to demand any electoral reforms, and in fact as you are aware, they fear to lose elections.
As you know, our Parliament from 2013 has thrown out members who were elected in 2013 and there have been numerous by-elections, almost to suggest another general election over the five-year term.
And none of the splinter groups of MDC have participated for fear of losing those elections.
You know there is now MDC-T, MDC-Biti, MDC-Mangoma, MDC-Welshman; and now more recently from our own party Zimbabwe People First – all of them are afraid of losing elections because they want to go into the 2018 elections lying to the people that they have the support of the generality of the population.
So what we find now are false prophets peddling falsehoods about our electoral laws.
The problem is not the Constitution, the problem is not the electoral laws; the problem is that none of these parties have viable alternative policies to those pronounced by Zanu-PF. The demand for President Mugabe to go is not a policy; and I think they should be told that it is for them to worry about their own leadership and not concern themselves with a leadership that is not leading their parties.
It is for Zanu-PF to decide, and we have agreed that in order to win elections, we must have President Mugabe as our leader.
They can’t tell us who should lead us. Their responsibility should be to find leaders who can stand against President Mugabe.
So I want to emphasise that through the collaboration of Zanu-PF and all MDC formations – and before their own splintering and before Zimbabwe People First because that one was also part of us as we were negotiating levelling of the political ground – electoral reforms were done and there is no validity, no basis whatsoever to be demanding electoral reforms.
What I understand they are saying, and which is not possible, is that we should put into the law that people should vote for them.
It’s unheard of that we put in the electoral law and the Constitution that the opposition parties must win.
For them to win, they must have the support of the people which they currently, and in the future, do not have because they have no policies about running the country. They have no policies about the economy and social development of Zimbabwe.
And quite frankly we cannot make a law that people should support them and vote for them.
Hon Patrick Chinamasa is Finance Minister and Zanu-PF Secretary for Legal Affairs. He is a past Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. He made these remarks in an interview with The Sunday Mail Editor Mabasa Sasa last week.
