Speaking at a discussion meeting organized by ZESN, speakers from the different political parties seemed agreed that the Act was a step in the right direction but fell short in critical aspects.
Some of the glaring shortcomings of pointed out by the party representatives include the voter registration which is still placed under the controversial office of the registrar general .The act also does not address the issues of political violence and more importantly it does not deal with media coverage of elections which has largely remained partisan.
Speaking at the same meeting Professor Makumbe pointed out that the act does not address the issue of the voter's roll and yet it is so key in determining the outcome of the election.
" We are not going to have new elections in this country without a new voter's roll" declared Makumbe. Asked what he based his conclusions on, he said that the three political parties in the inclusive government had agreed that a new voter's roll should be compiled first before any election is held in this country. Makumbe revealed that it takes a minimum of five months to come up with a voter's roll.
MDC- T legislator,hourarable Matutu also underscored how critical the issue of a new voters' roll was when he revealed that the current voter's roll still had ghost voters some of them born in 1905 while others were as young as two years.
ZANU pf representative at the meeting sang a different tune declaring that electoral amendment act was a perfect document, " The electoral amendment act represents an MDC wish list which ZANU Pf agreed to because we are a democratic party." said Nguni
Post published in: News