The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission says it will decide whether it is worth its while to continue to seek consensus with political parties or go it alone because it seems it has failed to build the consensus.
ZEC chairperson Priscillah Chigumba said the commission had gone beyond its constitutionally ascribed role of designing, printing and distributing ballot papers and asking political parties to observe the process but the parties continue to be aggrieved.
“ZEC has the exclusive constitutional obligation to design, print, safeguard and distribute ballot paper,” she said.
“There is no legal framework that allows some of these requests or demands by political parties. Different political parties want different things and quite evidently we have failed to build consensus so far we are now debating whether we continue the consensus-building exercise or just stick to the letter and spirit of the law.”
Opposition parties are holding a demonstration on Wednesday to demand reforms necessary for free and fair elections.
The parties, it appears, are trying to push through reforms that the Movement for Democratic Change failed to push through during the debate on the Electoral Amendment bill.
Zimbabwe elections are now 20 days away.
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