HARARE - Zimbabwe leading elections watchdog group Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has condemned the recent attempts by Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri to reverse the newly enacted electoral reforms and allow police officers back into polling stations. Earlier this year partners in the Government of National Unity (GNU) agreed to a draft of electoral reforms which included, among other things, a change in the role of the police in electoral policies. They agreed to a restriction on the role of the police to maintaining law and order outside police stations.
However, Chihuri is trying to get the police back into the polling stations.
“ZESN strongly condemns the proposed return of the police officers inside polling stations during polling and the use of police and security commanders as presiding officers when police and the military and police vote,” said ZESN in statement.
Partners in the GNU decided that the police, who in the past voted 30 days before the public, should vote two days before the elections.
“ZESN recommends special voting as the case in most countries and not postal voting for the police. Voting that takes place two days before the election and which is also open to ZEC (Zimbabwe Election Commission) officials, the body that is mandated to run elections in Zimbabwe. We recommend that this process must be transparent and open to observation by both domestic and international observers and political partners.
Both President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have indicated that Zimbabwe is headed for polls and ZESN says that an enabling environment should be created to ensure a free and fair election.
Post published in: Politics