SANF 13 No 15 – by Joseph Ngwawi
Zimbabweans will go to polls on 31 July to elect a new president, parliamentarians and councillors in watershed elections that will mark the conclusion of a constitution-making process and adoption of new electoral laws.
President Robert Mugabe has set 31 July as the date for eagerly awaited elections to choose a new president, parliamentarians and councillors.
In the event that there is no outright winner of the presidential elections, a run-off election will be held on 11 September.
In a proclamation published in an Extraordinary Government Gazette, Mugabe also announced that the nomination court will sit on 28 June to receive nomination papers from prospective candidates.
The proclamation comes in the wake of a Constitutional Court ruling that ordered that polls be held before the end of July.
Mugabe also gazetted amendments to the Electoral Act that paved the way for the holding of the elections.
The proclamation of election date and gazetting of the Act were, however, contested by some of Mugabe’s partners in an inclusive government formed in 2009 with assistance from the then South African President, Thabo Mbeki.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has vowed to contest the election date in court, insisting he wants a later date.
He has vowed to take up his challenge to SADC leaders who are due to meet in Maputo, Mozambique, on 15 June to discuss the political situation in southern Africa.
An ongoing voter registration exercise that began on 10 June is expected to close on 9 July.
According to the amended Electoral Act, the voters roll will be closed no later than 12 days after the nomination date.
The two main contenders for the presidency are Mugabe and Tsvangirai, assuming the latter eventually agrees to participate in the election.
Several other candidates have expressed to contest for the presidency, including Industry Minister Welshman Ncube.
To qualify to run in presidential elections, a candidate must be a registered voter who should be aged at least 40 years.
The National Assembly will be made up of 210 elected members and 60 reserved seats for women.
There will be six seats reserved for women in each of the 10 administrative provinces in Zimbabwe, with the members elected through a system of proportional representation based on the votes cast for candidates representing parties contesting the parliamentary elections in each of the provinces.
The provision for reserved seats for women will apply for the first two Parliaments under the new Constitution. This means that the reserved seats will be used for this election and the next one due after five years.
The Senate will be made up of 80 members, comprising six elected representatives from each of the 10 provinces as well as two representatives of persons with disabilities.
The remainder will be 18 traditional chiefs, comprising the president and deputy president of the National Council of Chiefs and two chiefs each from eight provinces that exclude the two metropolitan provinces of Harare and Bulawayo.
To qualify as a member of the National Assembly and Senate, one must be a registered voters and should be at least 21 years old to become a Member of Parliament and 40 years for senators.
For the first time since independence, Zimbabwe has introduced a “zebra-list” system for the nomination of senate candidates.
Under this system, political parties will be required to submit lists of candidates showing women and men alternating, with women at the top of all lists.
The zebra-lists system is used for parliamentary and local government elections in other SADC member states such as Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa.
National elections in Zimbabwe will be the first in the region in 2013 following the postponement of presidential polls in Madagascar that were scheduled for July.
Voting in the Madagascar polls was originally scheduled for 24 July, but faced with sorting out the legitimacy of some of the candidates, the government has postponed the elections again, moving the date to 23 August. sardc.net
