Leopards Not Changing Their Spots As Preps For 2028 Elections Under Illegal & Shambolic Process Take Shape

By Shingirai Vambe

In the heart of Zimbabwe’s electoral landscape, a tale of controversy and mistrust unfolds. It begins with the delimitation exercise, a process that demarcates electoral boundaries, which was conducted by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in 2022. However, this exercise has been widely criticized for being illegal and prone to gerrymandering, a claim that the Citizens Coalition For Change (CCC) fervently supports.

The CCC alleges that the delimitation process did not comply with the law, and the calculation of the threshold was downright illegal. This led to the deliberate gerrymandering of boundaries in 57 constituencies, including Zvishavane Ngezi and Masvingo West, to dilute opposition votes. The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and the Election Resource Centre (ERC) echo similar sentiments, stating that the process was critical to achieving free, fair, and credible elections, but the ZEC’s Preliminary Delimitation Report had several fundamental flaws.

As the story progresses, the flaws in the delimitation process come to light. The ZEC relied on preliminary census reports instead of final reports, violating constitutional provisions for equal voter numbers. The commission also failed to justify the merging of constituencies and wards, further fueling the flames of discontent. The ERC report notes that the delimitation process potentially changed the electoral and political landscape of Zimbabwe ahead of the 2023 elections, identifying 113 ZANU PF stronghold seats, 55 opposition stronghold seats, and 42 highly competitive seats.

Zimbabwe prepares for 2028 election, regardless of the unconstitutional agenda by ZANU PF apologists to extend presidential term by 3 years until 2030, drawing attention across the political divide.

With the capture of critical institutions, majority of citizens have partially agreed to the call, with no plan to speak against the agenda, knowing how Parliament and the justice Ministry is structured and captured in favor of the governing party, though tensions continue to widen the political parties gap of unity in both the ruling and opposition parties.

Zimbabwe Courts are ceased with the 2023 delimitation report which was reportedly formulated from the preliminary national census report, giving flawed results of the exercise.

Opposition leader who contested the 2023 election, Nelson Chamisa resigned months after self proclaimed secretary general of the party, Sengezo Tshabangu, was ushered into Parliament by the Speaker of Parliament, Advocate Jacob Francis Mudenda through unceremoniously recalling elected members of the opposition supporting Chamisa.

Again it was an unconstitutional process that citizens ignore and its business as usual.

The ERC and ZESN reports highlighted the fraud by ZEC and further submitted recommendations to Parliament for ZEC to adopt for a free, fair and credible election process in Zimbabwe. However, violations to holding of elections in Zimbabwe now exceed 30 from 2023 with the Courts sitting on the legitimate cases that they have considered moot, and overtaken by events.

It is the view of ZESN that subjecting public documents to critical scrutiny and comment is necessary in a constitutional society that is built on democracy, transparency, accountability, the rule of law and justice.

The plan for elections in future is water tight, with the Chamisa led party which is still unknown, probably continuing with the ambiguity strategy confirming to be on the ground working towards the 2028 elections.

The general populace, both local and abroad have a different view, they see a natural death in opposition politics.

CCC elections officer, Charles Madhiwa told the Post On Sunday that in terms of preparations for the next election due 2028 they are well on course.

“There is a lot of grassroots work taking place at the moment, what is left is just to announce officially the new vehicle, how it will continue to fight for a deserved change of governance. We are well on course. But sad reality is the elections in Zimbabwe remain tainted ab initio because of numerous illegalities our frontier of contestation is the SEOM report it contains unimpeached evidence of a whole illegal and shambolic election,” said Madhiwa.

On January 7 2023, a formal letter of complaint against the Preliminary Report had been addressed by a constitutional expert lawyer, Professor Lovemore Madhuku to the Speaker of Parliament, Advocate Mudenda. The letter claimed that the ZEC Preliminary Delimitation Report was not signed by ZEC Commissioners, and was thus not an act of ZEC.

Sadly, The letter claimed that the ZEC Preliminary Delimitation Report was not signed by ZEC Commissioners, and was thus not an act of ZEC. The letter further made reference to the Memo by the ZEC Commissioners requesting the setting aside of the Preliminary Delimitation Report.

Despite these two related but separate developments, the Ad Hoc Committee of Parliament did not provide a response to the lawyer’s letter which threatened litigation. At the date of this Brief, there was also no response to the Memo from its addressees, namely the President of Zimbabwe, the Chief Secretary to President and Cabinet and the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.

The elections proceeded and later a report by  SADC Electoral Observer Mission highlighting the flaws.

Questions being asked, if the 2030 plan will work, if the opposition players continue to fight and remain divided, indeed the unconstitutional plan will succeed said Former Matebeleland North Legislator, Sibusisiwe Bhudha Masara.

She told this publication that the infighting and continuous name dropping of members across the country in opposition politics will allow the 2030 agenda to sail through and emphasized on unity.

As citizens comment and share their views on social media platforms, they blame Chamisa of failing to lead, unite and build the party. some however pored aspersions on individuals who have taken their brooding ground in the echelons of power calling others sellouts.

To date no one Member of Parliament has pushed for the electoral amendments as recommended by electoral bodies, ZESN and ERC including a strict voter education process for the electorate.

The Ruling ZANU PF party has opened another cane of worms in the agenda to extend the elections. The out-spoken war veteran Blessed Runesu Geza has openly disputed to the plan and has spoken against the leadership highlighting how the Government with its apparatus has failed the citizens whom they purport to represent.

Geza is on record for calling out against the Justice system, the Parliament of Zimbabwe, Office of the President to mention just a few, to align themselves with the law, with the constitution.

Running another election under the circumstances is another scam by Zimbabwe into another shambolic election.

ZESN drafted a Comprehensive Electoral Amendment Bill and submitted it to Parliament of Zimbabwe for consideration in the amendment of the Electoral Act. This model electoral law has comprehensive provisions on delimitation that are guided by international best practices, including the SADC Principles and Guidelines for Governing Democratic Elections and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. Both the model Delimitation Regulations and the model Electoral Bill are available upon request.

The 9th Parliament tabled the Bill which was of no use after the Proclamation by the President.

Dzivarasekwa Member of Parliament Edwin Mushoriwa (CCC) told the Post On Sunday that the 2030 agenda is a side show. As far as every Zimbabwe is concerned, we are going to have elections in 2028, there is no bill or any process that has been gazetted in support of the extension.

“Zimbabwe has had several disputed election, the 2023 elections was out of this world, that left all the observers confirming the shambolic process by ZEC. There is need to attend to the process so as to have the hygienic democratic processes, so that we have a free, fair and credible elections,” said Mushoriwa.

He added that as a nation, soon citizens should actually work on the preparations for elections.

“We have had some conversation the Minister of Justice and Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Ziyambi Ziyambi and  may probably take the Private Members Bill into Parliament, hoping to progressively bring the Electoral amendment Bill on to the table,” added Mushoriwa

He further added that the party that has majority dictate the pace, and there is need to persuade the Minister also noting that he has already alluded that the process be given to Registrar General delimitation.

The electorate moved from one polling station to the other in search of names, political parties have been calling on to ZEC to release the electronic voters’ roll, the call was futile, another violation according to the Electoral Act.

ZESN report urged that to instill public confidence and trust in the delimitation process, ZEC should make available the electronic voters’ roll to enable stakeholders to compare the data used by ZEC in compiling the Preliminary Delimitation Report, to the statistics in the voters’ roll.

Efforts to get a comment from the Justice Minister, and leader of Government Business in Parliament, Ziyambi Ziyambi were fruitless as he was not answering his mobile phone.

 

 

About The Author