21-08-2023- On 23 August 2023, Zimbabwe will hold its harmonised elections, namely; the Local Authority, National Assembly and the Presidential elections. The elections are being held under new electoral boundaries drawn by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). ZESN extols the government for implementing some electoral reforms, which include; the ratification of the African Charter on Democracy, Governance and Elections (ACDEG) in 2022; the amendment of the Census and Statistics Act in 2020 to push forward the population census to pave way for the delimitation of electoral boundaries by the ZEC, the Constitution Amendment Number 2 which introduced the Youth Quota in the National Assembly and the extension of the Women’s Quota by another ten years in the National Assembly.
Delimitation of Electoral Boundaries
The Delimitation of election boundaries is one of the key electoral processes that preceded the 2023 harmonized elections. The ZEC is constitutionally mandated to undertake this process. The 2023 delimitation was ZEC’s first delimitation process since 2008 when the last exercise was undertaken. The process and outcome was shrouded in controversies that included, the inadequate stakeholder engagements, reliance on a preliminary Census report (as opposed to the final report) and the formula applied in determining average voter population for each constituency. Following the release of the delimitation report, a court application was filed by a political party seeking the nullification or revision of the ZEC Delimitation report to make descriptions of boundaries clearer and to apply the correct formula in determining the average voter population for each constituency. The dismissal of the Court challenge means that Zimbabwe harmonised polls will be conducted under the newly delimited boundaries.
