ZESN’S COMMENT ON THE ZEC BVR PROVISIONAL STATISTICS

23 March 2018 – Following several requests by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network ZESN and other stakeholders for Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to release data, on the numbers of voters registered disaggregated by province and gender, the ZEC published the Biometric Voter Registration BVR data on its website in March 2018. Analysis of the data indicates that registration was generally high across all provinces. The BVR exercise resulted in higher numbers of youth and women registering as voters…read more

ZESN AND ZLHR ANALYSIS OF THE ELECTORAL AMENDMENT ACT OF 28 MAY 2018

The 2013 Constitution provides for the overall framework for the conduct of elections in Zimbabwe, which must be managed by an independent Zimbabwe Election Commission that is subject to the Constitution and the other laws. The Constitution also provides for political rights – the right to vote and the right to be voted into office. Since adoption of the Constitution in 2013, Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR, have been calling for alignment of the Electoral Act to the Constitution. In some instances, ZESN and ZLHR have also been calling on the implementation of provisions of the Constitution…more

ZESN Position Paper on Constitutional Amendment Bill

The government is proposing to amend the Constitution and some of the proposed changes affect the conduct of elections. This is ZESN’s position paper concerning the proposed changes. While ZESN acknowledges that the Constitution is not set in stone, it encourages caution and restraint before changing it, particularly so not long after its adoption and before some parts have been implemented. ZESN urges a more consultative, cooperative and consensus-based approach and discourages unilateralism based on numerical superiority in parliament…more

How to Hold Elections Amid COVID-19

The world over, the outbreak of COVID-19 has had far reaching implications across many facets of life. Many countries have been forced to go on prolonged periods of lockdown interfering with the normal course of events. As a result, electoral processes have been rescheduled or postponed indefinitely in different countries across the globe. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which had indefinitely suspended all electoral activities, has since issued a statement indicating it would resume activities that do not violate lockdown measures using skeletal staff…more

Possible Electoral systems for Zimbabwe

A new constitution of Zimbabwe should include, among other things, the principles governing the systems of representation for the various elected bodies of the state. The electoral systems need to be balanced with specific functions given to each body. For example, a ceremonial head of state may be indirectly elected, whereas an executive head independent of parliament should be elected using a system of majority vote from the electorate (gathering as much support as possible from the voters)…………. : more

Voters’ Roll Observation Report

In democratic polities, voting is the supreme act of citizen participation in politics and its processes. In fact, voting is one of the ‘procedural minima’ of democracy. Granted there are numerous ways and methods of participation but voting is easily the most visible and one of the most effective methods of ‘speaking truth to power.’ The importance of elections in a democracy is seen through the opportunity citizens have to pick leaders of their choice to represent them in governance structures. Alexander Hamilton (1962), observed that “A share in the sovereignty of the state, which is exercised by the citizens at large in voting at elections, is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law.”……….. : more