With 10 months to the next elections- Zimbabwe has no time for necessary electoral reforms- Jonathan Moyo says

Exiled Zimbabwean politician Jonathan Moyo says Zimbabwe does not have enough time to implement the necessary electoral reforms for free and fair elections as it has only 10 months before the next elections.

He was commenting on the announcement on Tuesday that the Zimbabwe cabinet had approved principles for the Electoral Amendment Bill 2022.

Moyo said that a key source for electoral reforms should be the recommendations that were made by the Motlanthe Commission following violence that erupted on 1 August 2018 just before the announcement of the election results.

One of the recommendations was that political parties in Zimbabwe should be registered “to ensure accountability of party leaders”.

He said this was clearly food for thought for the main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change.

Another key recommendation by the commission was the “development of ICT facilities for expeditious transmission of results to the Command Centre as soon as practicable”.

The commission recommended that Parliament should consider adopting legislation to shorten the time taken in the announcement of presidential results in future elections. 

Moyo said that the use ICT to transmit results required e-voting.

“With 2023 polls due within 10 months, there’s no time to introduce e-voting,” he said.

Zimbabwe has to hold the next elections before 25 August but not earlier than 25 July according to the country’s constitution.

The CCC has listed 7 key reforms it wants implemented before next year’s elections but Moyo says the demands have come too little too late.

“It must be said that @nelsonchamisa’s “7 electoral reform demands”, coming within 10 months before the 2023 general election, are four and a half years too little too late; they’re cynical and opportunistic; but even worse, they’re vague & embarrassing!”

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