BY TAFADZWA KACHIKO/KENNETH NYANGANI
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) is under the spotlight after it emerged that some commissioners did not sign a preliminary delimitation report allegedly smuggled into Parliament on Friday.
A Zimbabwean Tonderai Chidawa, through his lawyers Lovemore Madhuku Lawyers and Legal Practitioners, yesterday challenged the authenticity of the document.
In his letter to Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda, Chidawa queried the delimitation report saying Parliament must investigate.
“It appears that the preliminary report tabled in Parliament is not an act of Zec as a body corporate, at most it may be an act of the chairperson of the commission (Priscilla Chigumba) and her deputy (Rodney Simuka Kiwa),” Chidawa submitted.
“It turns out what is now before Parliament is not an act of the Zec as a body corporate, there would be no preliminary delimitation report within the contemplation of section 161 (7) of the constitution.
“My client is in possession of a document signed by the seven commissioners of Zec. The contents of that document speak to themselves that the seven commissioners are not part of the preliminary delimitation report that is now before the Parliament.”
Chidawa added: “The document from the seven commissioners to the extent to which it inescapably shows the preliminary delimitation report is not an act of Zec as a body corporate, must be investigated by Parliament before it proceeds with the process envisaged under section 161(8) of the constitution.”
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Independent election watchdogs also poked holes into the report as they accused Zec of using a wrong formula and gerrymandering when conducting the delimitation exercise last year.
Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Ziyambi Ziyambi when presenting the report said the total number of registered voters was divided by 210 constituencies resulting in a national average of 27 640 voters per constituency.
Ziyambi said they used the format to determine voter population thresholds permissible in line with section 161(6) of the Constitution.
A 20% variance from the national average was then determined resulting in a maximum registered voter threshold of 33 169 voters and a minimum of 22 112 voters.
Independent election watchdog Project Vote 263 executive director Youngerson Matete told The Standard that a wrong formula was used.
“First and foremost, we need to underline that this report was done on the background of Zec refusing to furnish stakeholders with an auditable and verifiable voters’ roll so we can't authenticate or verify the figures given,” Matete said yesterday.
“Secondly there was a misinterpretation of section 161(6) of the Constitution that led to a wrong formula.
“The cited provision says no constituency or ward must be 20% bigger or less than the other.
“This should be the difference between a smaller and bigger constituency. If you take the maximum figure of 33 169 vs minimum of 22 112 the difference is 11,057 which is 40%.”
Election Resource Centre (ERC) programs manager Solomon Bobosibunu said the formula used distorted voter thresholds per constituency.
“The generic challenge that we have so far seen relates to the formulae that have been used.
"These have been purported to have been used at national level but applied differently at provincial level,” Bobosibunu said.
“That’s a challenge because you can’t say at national level, you are using this threshold and at provincial you are using something different.
“As a result, most of Bulawayo Metropolitan Province constituencies have around 22 000 except the two that have 23 000 and 24 000 respectively.
“If you move to other provinces like Harare Metropolitan Province there are other constituencies at the brink of maximum threshold which is 31 000-33 000.
“That creates another challenge where if a voter registration drive takes place it means that the population will go overboard.”
Zec disclosed that the voter population within each province was divided by the number of existing constituencies in the respective province.
However, Bobosibunu said there was no equality of votes in rural and urban wards.
“In Buhera for one to be a ward councillor, one simply should have about 2 000 votes and in Harare 15 000,” Bobosibunu said.
“You see some of the challenges in Bulawayo and Chitungwiza. That’s another challenge because there is no equality of votes.”
Speaking about gerrymandering, Matete cited Zvishavane-Ngezi Constituency and Zvishavane-Runde as examples.
“Ward 8 and 9 (Maglas township, Birthday, Advalore and Nil township) were moved to rural Zvishavane-Runde and ward 6 was moved to Zvishavane-Ngezi. This is a clear gerrymandering case and there is no justification at all,” Matete said.
Political scientist Phillan Zamchiya raised similar concerns in an analysis titled Seven Highlights from Zimbabwe’s 2022 Draft Delimitation Report.
“There is a lot of gerrymandering through a less noisy, maybe ‘smart’ process of reconfiguration and renaming of constituencies in the opposition strongholds,” Zamchiya said.
“For example, in Harare Province, it is clear that the new Churu and Hunyani constituencies were created from Harare South constituency which is dominated by Zanu PF.
“In terms of ‘smart’ gerrymandering, Zec has not bothered to create a significant number of new constituencies in areas where Zanu PF has a chance to win possibly to manage opposition noise and out of political praxis borne out of the realisation that the current configuration of constituencies heavily favours the ruling party.”
Some Zanu PF affiliate groups have dismissed the delimitation report as distorted in favour of the opposition.
Zanu PF and the opposition have said they will come up with clear positions after analysing the document. Zimbabwe last carried a delimitation exercise in 2007 ahead of the 2008 harmonised election.
