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<\/a><\/p>\n22 December 2011<\/p>\n
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THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has started preparing for the constitutional referendum and general elections expected next year by undertaking various activities to ensure a smooth plebiscite.<\/p>\n
ZEC chief elections officer Mr Lovemore Sekeramayi said, in a statement, that people should register as voters.<\/p>\n
“The public is hereby informed that as its legal mandate, the commission has an oversight function over the Registrar-General of Voters,” he said.<\/p>\n
“ZEC urges citizens of Zimbabwe – 18 years and above – to inspect the voters’ rolls and\/or register as voters at Registrar-General of Voters offices at the national, district and designated registered centres.<\/p>\n
“Note that voter registration is a continuous exercise in Zimbabwe.”<\/p>\n
Mr Sekeramayi said the commission has since launched a voter education campaign.<\/p>\n
“This time around, ZEC has been more proactive and has designed materials that address specific needs of youth, women and people living with disabilities,” he said.<\/p>\n
As part of the preparations, ZEC recently trained its members and acquired vehicles, computers, laptops, photocopiers, public relations and training equipment and relevant software packages.<\/p>\n
ZEC is already installing hardware and software for Internet communication.<\/p>\n
Mr Sekeramayi said for the past 20 months, the commission has been busy “realising that an election was not an event, but a process”.<\/p>\n
He said they managed to raise funds from the United Nations Development Programme and its co-operating partners to enable ZEC to address its strategic objectives.<\/p>\n
“The last 10 months have been congested with a number of training programmes for commissioners and staff in order to enhance their capacity in executing the ZEC mandate,” Mr Sekeramayi said.<\/p>\n
Some of the training includes an intense international course on election administration and management, secretarial course for secretaries, defensive driving course for all ZEC headquarters drivers and development of a voter education manual to facilitate the implementation of one of ZEC’s key obligations.<\/p>\n
Mr Sekeramayi said another key area that the commission embarked on was a very participatory job evaluation exercise which should be completed this year, tabled before a full commission and finally submitted for consideration to Government.<\/p>\n
He said ZEC participated in the Sadc secretariat, Sadc Electoral Commissions Forum and AU-organised observer missions to DRC, Gambia, Liberia, Mauritius, Nigeria, the Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Uganda.<\/p>\n
“These missions have been a revelation, both the commission and the secretariat have drawn a lot of lessons from this involvement as well as sharing and drawing from international best practice in the management and administration of elections,” Mr Sekeramayi said.<\/p>\n
He said the commission played a leading role in setting up and management of logistics during the just-ended DRC elections after an appeal for help.<\/p>\n
Mr Sekeramayi said they recently acquired Mahachi-Quantum Building in Harare and Windsor Park Building in Bulawayo as permanent offices to enhance accessibility and independence.<\/p>\n
He said they hoped that as the fiscus improves, ZEC will be accorded more resources to further its infrastructural and technological developments.<\/p>\n
“The commission intends to launch a campaign in the near future to make it more visible to the public and also engender a spirit of stakeholder consultation and engagement as ongoing exercises so as to maximise stakeholder participation through active interaction,” said Mr Sekeramayi.<\/p>\n
“To date, ZEC has conducted two workshops with civil society and other organisations and one with political parties.”<\/p>\n
President Mugabe recently said elections should be held next year without fail to end problems associated with the inclusive Government.<\/p>\n
He urged Copac to quicken the pace in drafting a new constitution that will be put to a referendum before the elections were held.<\/p>\n
The Global Political Agreement, which gave birth to the inclusive Government, has since outlived its two-year mandate.<\/p>\n
Analysts say the inclusive Government is now operating illegally, but only elections can signify its end.<\/p>\n
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