Madam Speaker, when we go into elections, it must be such that ZTV must be accessible to all political parties, be it the National Patriotic Front that has just been formed by former President Mugabe, be it whatever party, but most importantly, the two main political parties in this country which are represented in the Parliament which is ZANU-PF and MDC-T must get equal coverage on ZBC. Madam Speaker, what you then see on television is that an opposition leader will address a rally for one hour and there is something that they say, it is taken out of context. That 40 seconds is basically put on television and it is repeated to create in the minds of the viewers that look at the opposition leader that you want to vote for. Things are taken out of context and that is what is put on television. Things that the opposition leader says at a rally that build the nation, they are not given coverage. Madam Speaker, I think that is one thing that this Electoral Amendment Bill must be able to look at.
We are also looking at registration of journalists. Journalists, Madam Speaker, who are plying their trade in this country are accredited by ZMC, but when it comes to elections, they are told that they must also then go and accredit with ZEC. Madam Speaker, when they accredit with ZEC, they are charged a fee. When they are accredited with ZMC they are charged a fee, but there is another dimension to that. Those journalists that were covering BVR, the process of registering to vote, were accredited by ZEC and they paid a fee. They are told that for them to be able to cover the election, they must come and reaccredit and again pay a fee. I think, Madam Speaker, if you look at the economy in this country, especially those that are operating as free lance journalists, they are not able to raise that kind of money to pay accreditation fees all the time. My proposal is that, as long as a journalist is accredited by ZMC, they must be able to cover the elections for as long as they are able to produce a card that was given by ZMC because it is ZMC which accredits journalists and not ZEC.
Madam Speaker, when it comes to foreign observers, Government must have nothing to do with the issue of people that are coming to observe elections. It must be the preserve of ZEC. ZEC must be able to say who is coming to Zimbabwe, when are they coming to Zimbabwe and the processes and procedure that they must follow for them to cover that election. That must not be done by Government because Government is run by a political party and that political party is interested in this election. It must be done by ZEC, assuming that ZEC is independent.
I also want to talk about the role of the security agents when it comes to electioneering. Police officers must be able to vote. Those that are going to be deployed to help ZEC with elections must be able to vote at a polling station of their choice.
Voter registration agents pay a registration fee of $5. In my Constituency, Mabvuku-Tafara, I will have 68 polling agents. Each of these polling agents must be able to raise $5. We are coming from communities where people are not employed. We are in a country which has more than 90% unemployment and most of these polling agents are not employed and they are not able to raise this amount. This means that the burden to raise this money falls on the shoulders of the candidate. I think this is a lot of money. Why are election registration agents paying $5 when this should be done for free?
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