THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) made a fundamental and fatal blunder using the old Lancaster House constitution on the draft delimitation report, rendering it null and void ab initio; exposing Zec’s disastrous incompetence, a local legal and parliamentary affairs watchdog has observed.
In an analysis, Veritas, a group of lawyers seeking to advance accountable government, democracy, constitutionalism and rule of law in Zimbabwe, says the report is deeply flawed and has serious malapportionment errors shown by huge variations in voters’ numbers distribution.
The biggest mistake which shows that the report is a botched task is the shockingly incompetent use of “some provisions of the old Lancaster House rather than on the provisions of our current Constitution – thus rendering the whole exercise unconstitutional”.
“The number of voters in the constituencies and wards vary by more than the 20% limit prescribed in section 161 of the current constitution. The variations are so great and so numerous that the delimitation itself is invalid,” Veritas says.
“The effect of Zec’s misconstruction of section 161 of the constitution is to invalidate the preliminary delimitation report.
“The proposed electoral boundaries set out in the report contravene section 161(6) so an election held on the basis of those boundaries cannot be held in accordance with the constitution.
“The proposed electoral boundaries set out in the report contravene section 161(6) so an election held on the basis of those boundaries cannot be held in accordance with the constitution.
“It might have been different if only one or two constituencies exceeded or fell below the permissible voter number limits, but the variations are so numerous and so great that the entire delimitation must be regarded as fatally flawed and unconstitutional.
“The preliminary report is a nullity.What is to be done? Time is very short for the mistake to be rectified. All this would probably have been avoided if Zec had been more open in its conduct of the delimitation exercise.”-STAFF WRITER
