HARARE -- Twenty-eight applicants out of 143 have been shortlisted for interviews to sit on the newly constituted Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, (ZEC). (Pictured: George Chiweshe Not among shortlisted candidates)
(Pictured: Didymus Mutasa Blamed the farmers for the violence)
The interviews will be conducted in Parliament on Monday and members of the interview panel are the same as for the media commission. The team is led by Senator Obert Gutu, a lawyer from the MDC-T.
It includes Tabitha Khumalo MP MDC-T, Edward Mkhosi MP MDC-M, Mabel Chinomona Zanu (PF) and Senator Chief Fortune Charumbira Zanu (PF).
Among the notable absentees from the list is the current chairperson of ZEC, retired army brigadier Justice George Chiweshe. Three applicants though belong to the current ZEC. These are deputy chairperson Joyce Kazembe, Vivian Ncube and Theophilus Gambe, all women.
From the list of 28, Parliament will send 12 names to Mugabe who will appoint eight commissioners from that list. The chairperson is supposed to be appointed after consultation between Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara and the judicial service commission.
Outspoken former MDC MP Job Sikhala said while hes has been told that the list contains applicants considered moderates, he warned that as long as Mugabe had a final say, that alone will not make the new commission truly independent.
The buck stops with Mugabe and people like George Chiweshe will bounce, will be re-appointed as a thank you for keeping him in power. Soldiers like Brigadier Douglas Nyikayaramba will have something to do in the new ZEC as long as Mugabe is there, Sikhala said last week.
He added: Although we have ZEC by name, we all know it had been militarized and its functions taken over by the service chiefs and Tobaiwa Mudede, the Registrar-General. It had become an extra-legal or nominal body.
Sikhala said Mugabe will bulldoze his way past Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, and appoint any military men that he wants in the new commission.
Look, once in place, the new commssion is expected to recruit its own secretariat, headed by a chief elections officer charged with the day-to-day running of the commission. Nothing will stop Mugabe with his vast powers to re-appoint the current chief elections officer Lovemore Sekeramayi, a long time ZANU PF functionary. He can stuff all his military men in this secretariat, the former MP for St Marys said.
Post published in: News