Staff Writer
The Speaker of Parliament of Zimbabwe, Honorable Advocate Mudenda highlighted the need to come up with a robust electoral law whose legal vigour and vitality should stand the test of time in ensuring that Zimbabwean elections, at any given time; are peaceful, free, fair and credible.
He noted that electoral law should respect gender equality, inclusion and all other rights as elections are also a human rights issue as well as have the integrity of its purpose and intent.
He was speaking at an All Stakeholders Conference in Kariba in May hosted by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) in collaboration with the Southern African Parliamentary Support Trust (SAPST) and the Parliament of Zimbabwe (POZ).
The objective of the conference was to go through the Draft Amendment Bill, clause by clause to ensure the finalization of discussions and input from relevant stakeholders.
It also discussed the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) Comprehensive Draft Electoral Amendment Bill.
He stated that the main function of the conference was to read the Bill, discuss it, assess the challenges, and probably agree on the way forward.
In his keynote address, The Speaker of Parliament of Zimbabwe, Honourable Advocate Jacob Mudenda said the Conference was convened in accordance with the constitutional dictates that Parliament is there to make laws for peace, order and good governance of Zimbabwe as provided for in Section 117 (2) (b) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe with the objective of refining the Electoral Law in order to achieve peace, order and good governance in the context of Zimbabwe’s political electoral processes, more so as the nation beckons 2023 harmonized elections.
He added that the Conference was held to marry our electoral law with the constitutional values and democratic principles provided for in Section 3 (2) as read together with sections 155, 156, and 157 of the Constitution.
Hon. Adv Mudenda acknowledged ZESN for the sterling effort of coming up with the election petition which eventually led to the crafting of the Draft Electoral Bill. He emphasized the need to adhere to the electoral law as provided for in Section 157 (4) of the Constitution which provides that: “No amendments may be made to the Electoral Law, or to any subsidiary legislation made under that law unless the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has been consulted and any recommendations made by the Commission have been duly considered”.
The Honourable Speaker of Parliament directed the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee to see to it that it conducts oral sessions with the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and ZEC to consider the proposals discussed at the All Stakeholders Conference.
At least 90 participants including the Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Jacob Francis Mudenda, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Hon. Misheck Mataranyika, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Hon. Chido Madiwa; Honourable Members of Parliament; Acting Chairperson for the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, Commissioner Dr Golden Chekenyere; Chairperson for the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, Commissioner Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe; Deputy Secretary for the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, Mr. Erick Mukutiri; The Executive Secretary of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Mr. Edward Mapara; The Director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Ms. Rose Hanzi; Chapter 12 Institutions as well as CSOs attended the conference.
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