May All Those With Nefarious Agenda Allow Speaker Jacob Mudenda To Bring Agenda Of National Concern To Parliament

Legislative Opinion On Electoral Act and Reforms

By Job Sikhala Zengeza West Legislator.

Those who benefited through the electoral system that had no checks and balances must allow the Legislature to initiate its own agendas.

The suggestion for the registration of political parties is anew. Why should we not be allowed to move the agenda to be in sync with other developed democracies in Africa such as Kenya, South Africa and many others that regulate the operation of political entities?

I urge all of you to rally behind reform agenda that is being initiated by Parliament. Our country has had disputed elections for far too long. We need an electoral framework that will give satisfaction to everyone who will participate in the elections.

The Pontification of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairperson, Priscilla Chigumba has always been to blame the Legislature to put in place Electoral reforms that suit the holding of free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.

The initiative taken by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs that culminated in the Kariba retreat last weekend should be seen in that light. This is the retreat with other stakeholders that studied the pitfalls of our Electoral Act in the present form that various suggestions emerged to aligning the current Electoral Act with the Constitution.

This is when the Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Mudenda, an Advocate at law, he is to suggest that no Zimbabwean should be left to participate in the affairs of his or her motherland that diaspora vote should be allowed.

He said that diaspora vote can only come via an amendment to the current constitution, to have an ambiguous provision to facilitate the voting of all Zimbabweans no matter their location, despite this contentious issue, there are a number of provisions in the current Electoral Act that need to be changed to be in sync with the Constitution.

The current Electoral Act as it stands is at variance with the new constitution. It needs a complete overhaul and satisfy what need to be included in the new Electoral Act. There are other pertinent issues such as gender parity in all spheres of the decision making that needs to be included in the new Electoral Act.

There was the recent amendment to the constitution that brought the women and youth quotas in provincial councils, local authorities and the Legislature. All those need to reflect in the Electoral Act.

Zimbabwean of all walks of life must support the current efforts towards reforms that has been a subject of contention for a very long time. Parliament as the third arm of the state, is the institutions bestowed with that responsibility to bring sanity to our Electoral Act.

Posted By Shingirai Vambe.