Election Talk 19

ELECTION TALK A monthly newsletter from EISA No. 19, 8 March 2005 Contents NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES AND THE 2005 ZIMBABWE ZIMBABWE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS Claude Kabemba Nomination of Candidates and the 2005 Zimbabwe Introduction Parliamentary Elections Claude Kabemba 1 The new Electoral Act in Part XII provides detailed information pertaining Voter Registration to the nomination of candidates for election as Members of Parliament. Any Grant Masterson 3 person who wishes to stand as a candidate for election has to lodge his or Delimitation of Electoral her nomination papers signed by no fewer than ten persons who are Boundaries 5 Khabele Matlosa registered on the voter’s roll for the constituency for which the candidate Primary Elections in seeks election and countersigned with the acceptance of the candidate or his Zimbabwe 7 or her chief election agent. Candidates are requested to lodge their Sydney Letsholo application with the constituency Elections Officer. The Elections Officer verifies all documentation. When necessary he/she gives an opportunity to candidates to rectify any defect. The rectification takes place within the nomination time limits. The Nomination Process participate in the elections managed to secure their candidature shows that the process was conducted well”. The nominations of candidates for the 2005 parliamentary The Politics of Nomination elections were the first to be conducted under the new The issue of birth certificates was potentially problematic and confusing. Independent Electoral The Minister of Land, Justice and Legal Affairs called for candidates to Commission. The nomination submit their applications together with their “long” birth certificates. was a one day process and it took Zimbabwe has two kinds of certificates – “short” birth certificates issued place on 18 February 2005. The before independence and “long: ones issued after independence. This was Electoral Commission set up seen by some as a way of unlawfully disqualifying certain candidates who Nomination Courts in the were born before independence in 1980. Fortunately, this decision was different constituencies. The reversed by the Independent Electoral Commission. Both certificates were nomination of candidates went used by candidates to register. more smoothly than expected and there were no serious complaints The major concern during these nominations was the high cost of standing from either the ruling party or the as a candidate. In February the registration fee for a candidate rose by 2000 opposition. All opposition percent from Zim $ 100, 000 (about US $17) to Zim $ 2 million ($US 330). political parties - the Movement This simply means that a party which might have paid only Zim $ 12 for Democratic Change, Zanu, million ($ US 1,983) to fill candidates in all the 120 constituencies was Zimbabwe Youth Alliance and asked to pay Zim $ 240 million ($ US 39,675). There is no doubt that this independent candidates expressed might have disqualified badly funded parties such as ZANU (Ndonga) and satisfaction with the process. The the Zimbabwe Youth Alliance (ZIYA). Opposition claims that this MDC Secretary-general, approach was designed deliberately to limit their ability to have candidates Professor Welshman Ncube said: in all constituencies. “on the balance, the fact that all candidates who wanted to Concerns were expressed, however, by certain individuals whose 41 Stanley Avenue Auckland Park Gauteng :: PO Box 740 Auckland Park 2006:: tel +27 11 482 5495::· fax +27 11 482 6163 [email protected] http://www.eisa.org.za ISSN 1811-7422 © EISA 2005 The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of EISA applications were rejected. For mention this as it begins to bring out the ideological characteristics of the example all suspended Zanu-PF main political parties. This to Zanu-PF could suggest that the MDC is the provincial chairmen who took stooge of whites; for MDC, the approach could be an attempt to show that it part in Jonathan Moyo’s is prepared for reconciliation and that it adopts the politics of Tsholotsho meeting, had their accommodation. applications rejected. The Tsholotsho meeting was an It is important to note that in most of these cases the Independent Electoral unsanctioned secret succession Commission demonstrated some level of impartiality and autonomy in meeting which Jonathan Moyo taking decisions. Each Electoral Court announced the approved list of orchestrated as a plot against the candidates and the Electoral Commission’s job was simply to publish a Zanu-PF's top leadership. The consolidated list of the constituencies. The table below gives the number of meeting aimed at promoting a political parties’ candidates and independents and indicates the gender rival candidate to President representation. Robert Mugabe's choice (Joice Mujuru) for the post of vice- Table: Number of candidates per party and the gender balance president.1 Moyo was sidelined and had no option but to stand as Party/Independents Numbers Male Female an independent candidate. Independents 17 13 4 MDC 120 111 9 Another candidate-Joshua ZANU-Ndonga 11 8 3 Mhambi was disqualified when ZANU-PF 120 99 21 he failed to produce an original ZIYA 2 2 0 copy of his national identity document. It is alleged that he Only the MDC and Zanu-PF have candidates in all 120 of the was born in Zambia and had constituencies. The dominance of male candidates in the Zimbabwe election never renounced his Zambian is strong. All groups perform badly in terms of gender and have failed to citizenship. David Coltart’s achieve the SADC gender representation requirement of 30% and if one application was successful after it considers that the deadline to achieve this is 2005, Zimbabwe with 37 was initially rejected on the women candidates out of a total of 270 candidates who will compete in the grounds that his mother was a election, is indeed lagging far behind. South African. Another member of the MDC, Roy Bennet, who is Conclusion currently under arrest, was disqualified. His wife filed for the Contrary to previous nomination processes, the nomination for 2005 same constituency. While Zanu- parliamentary elections went smoothly without any major disruption. In the PF lost one of its sitting MP’s - past, problems during nomination occurred for two reasons: confusion Jonathan Moyo, the MDC lost about the location for nomination and inadequate briefing on the procedures four sitting MPs who filed as which contributed to candidates failing to apply in an even-handed manner. independents. The two main The Zimbabwe Election Support Network reported that in the most recent political parties Zanu-PF and elections, the Nomination Courts were key problem areas for opposition MDC will contest in all 120 and independent candidates. For example, it says, in the 2002 Rural District constituencies. The rest of the Council Elections, the MDC claimed that hundreds of its prospective opposition parties - Zanu-Ndonga candidates were physically prevented from reaching the Nomination Courts and the Zimbabwe Youth by ruling party supporters. Similar allegations were made for several Alliance - have restricted their councils in the 2003 Urban Council elections where the ruling party won all participation to a few the council seats in three councils amid allegations of serious violence and constituencies. It is also intimidation of the opposition. This time, it seems, election officials at the understood that the MDC has Nomination Courts were well briefed. No obstructions or violence were filed a significant number of reported during the nomination process. white candidates in various constituencies. It is important to References 1 Joice Mujuru is seen as a stepping Electoral Act, No 25/2004 stone to the country's top job after Mugabe retires in 2008. SundayTimes.co.za, 19 February, 2005 2 VOTER REGISTRATION Commission, yet in practice, the Registrar continues to be staffed by civil Grant Masterson servants in the employ of the Zimbabwean government, and some reports indicate a lack of faith in the independence of the renovated institution 4 Introduction amongst Zimbabwe’s civil society . Voter registration is a means of In order to register, a claimant must usually apply for registration in the verifying those persons who are constituency in which he/she is a resident, however if this is not possible, eligible to vote in an election. then the claimant must provide satisfactory proof of residence in the The eligibility of a person to vote constituency in which he/she intends to vote to the Registrar-General, as is often a crucial issues in any well as a satisfactory reason why he/she wishes to vote in a constituency in election, and in Zimbabwe, this is which he/she is not a resident. The Electoral Act states that a reason is considered satisfactory if it is due to “place of origin, political affiliations or no exception. The majority of the 5 legislation relating to voter otherwise” . The ambiguity of this statement allows for a fairly broad registration is handled by the interpretation of satisfactory reasons for such an application. At present, the Electoral Act (2004), with brief Electoral Act does not make provision for Zimbabwean citizens living references to voter eligibility in outside of Zimbabwe to vote in an election. the Zimbabwe Constitution (1979). 5 Sections (Part IV – Part Voter’s roll VIII)2 devoted to voter registration in the Electoral Act is Once a claimant is successfully registered as a voter in a particular a good illustration of the constituency, he/she is not permitted to vote in any other constituency importance this issue in the unless an application of amendment is submitted to the Registrar-General, 6 electoral process. Although an which essentially entails re-application in a different constituency . In order exhaustive discussion of to ensure that a person is registered in a particular constituency, a voter’s Zimbabwe’s voter registration roll is maintained for all constituencies, and a consolidated national voter’s process is not possible here, the roll is also maintained.

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