oral practices, members of the ruling party, Zanu (PF) are already aware of the outcome of the Delimitation Commission’s redrawing of constituency boundaries as indicated by some of them already campaigning for new constituencies.
Zanu (PF) insiders told The Zimbabwean that campaigning was gathering momentum and “we are aware of the new constituencies”.
Zanu (PF) political commissar Elliot Manyika said party members could be “anticipating the new constituencies because there are some expectations”. The Delimitation Commission is expected to introduce many changes in constituency boundaries following the desire by the Zanu (PF) regime to increase House of Assembly and Senate seats from 150 to 210 and 66 to 84 respectively ahead of next year’s elections.
This paper can reveal that Zanu (PF) officials in Masvingo Province are already campaigning for constituencies expected to be established, such as Gutu East, which sources say will be established from parts of Gutu North and Gutu South that have been existing in Gutu District.
The ruling party must also be aware of new constituency boundaries in Harare, where it is involved in several ways of ensuring it gains ground against the popular MDC, such as allocation of stands to party supporters brought from rural areas, say observers.
Sources say the Delimitation Commission has finished drafting constituency boundaries and there are fears of rigging through a significant increase of constituencies in Zanu (PF) strongholds, while diluting the MDC urban strongholds such as Harare.
HARARE – Thousands of people will be effectively disenfranchised by the Mugabe regime’s convoluted delimitation exercise – provided for in Constitutional Amendment no 18 – which seeks to introduce 80 new constituencies for the 2008 elections, say analysts.
University of Zimbabwe lecturer Professor Eldred Masunungure said the only logical thing to do was to postpone the elections.
“There is going to be artificial voter apathy as most people are going to be disenfranchised after the delimitation of constituencies. Most people will not be able to check their new constituencies, and in the end they will get disillusioned and frustrated. A sizeable number of eligible voters are going to be turned away after turning up in the wrong constituency,” said Masunungure.
He also condemned the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) for failing to publicizing its activities widely enough.
“ZEC is being negligent. It’s not doing its constitutional job. We now have less than six months before the local council elections are held and I believe more time should have been devoted to the voter registration process. The delimitation of constituencies is primarily based on the number of registered voters,” said Masunungure.
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) chairperson Noel Kututwa said the organisation had written to ZEC calling for the extension of the mobile voter registration exercise.
“The whole process was inadequate. We also believe that the time allocated is not enough to cover the whole country. At most of the polling stations we monitored, the officers were only registering 100 people,” said Kututwa. – CAJ News
Post published in: Opinions