By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
Identified gaps in the legal framework have been a source of electoral contestation of poll outcome because the current electoral laws fall short of codifying expected democratic principles for managing democratic elections, an Electoral Reforms Tracking Report by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network says.
In other words, the report covering the period January to July 2021, says the legal framework has inherent weaknesses that makes it fall short of standards set by international, continental and regional benchmarks for the conduct of credible elections.
“The major legal developments that took place during the period under review relate to amendments to the 2013 constitution of Zimbabwe.
“An amendment to the constitution that was made during the life of the 8th Parliament of Zimbabwe having been contested earlier, fell for determination by the constitutional court in 2019 which controversially empowered the 9th Parliament to address illegalities that were observed with the parliamentary process.
“The amendment was duly endorsed by the 9th parliament in the period under review, thereby dovetailing with the passing of constitutional Amendment Number 2 into law.
“Other than Constitutional Amendment Number 2, no other major legal reforms were implemented,” says ZESN report.
The report takes a thematic approach to determine whether changes to the legal infrastructure during the period under review were such as to impact positively on the conduct of the future elections in Zimbabwe.
Most notably there have been no changes to electoral reforms such as the independence of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), review of legal provisions around voter registration and voters roll as well as voter education and election observation.
“The recommendations contained in the ZESN petition, which captures the recommendations of several Election Observer Missions, still cry for attention.
“It remains to be seen if the census process will be completed in time to contribute towards electoral boundary delimitation, Section 158 of the constitution provides that a general election must be held every five years.
“Tightening provisions on the role of traditional leaders in elections. “Given the number and content of recommendations by EOMs from previous elections in Zimbabwe, it would have been anticipated that there would be reviews of the legal framework.
“An integrity and Ethics Committee for the traditional leaders is anticipated by law but is it yet to be operational no legal provisions were passed during the period under review,” the report said.
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