Elections now feasible by 31 July

The announcement by the chair of the Zimbabwe Election Commission Rita Makarau that voter registration and voter inspection will run concurrently and will start on Monday, 10 June, has now made elections possible by 31 July as the exercise will be completed 21 days before the end of the month.

“Contrary to assertions by some people, the law stipulates that the 30-day period should be for voter registration as well as inspection of the voters’ roll. This means the two processes will run simultaneously and we will not have a separate 30-day period for registration and an additional 30-day period for inspection,” Makarau, a former High Court Judge, was quoted by The Herald as saying.

At least five political parties including, the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change which are in government with the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, have vowed to seek the intervention of the Southern African Development Community because they argue that it is not practical to hold the elections by 31 July.

A special SADC summit that was supposed to be held tomorrow was postponed and no alternative date has been set yet.

Although the regional body is supposed to be the custodian of free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, the long-drawn electoral and political crisis which has been dragging on for almost a decade seems to have sapped it of energy.

Even the European Union seems to be quietly giving in.

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