Zim elections: Judge Ticheme in spotlight
MBABANE – All eyes are on Judge Ticheme Dlamini as he is leading the SADC Electoral Advisory Council delegation, overseeing the elections in Zimbabwe.
Yesterday, the eNCA, a South African news agency, reported that the jury was out on whether Zimbabwe was ready for elections later this year.
It was reported that the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Electoral Advisory Council would give its verdict in about two weeks’ time after completing a oneweek visit to the country.
Zimbabwe is preparing to vote for a president, parliamentarians and municipal councillors in July or August.
Just like Zimbabwe, Eswatini, where Judge Dlamini is from, is heading for the polls this year.
During its visit to Zimbabwe, the four-member SADC delegation met the ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), other political parties, ambassadors from the region, media and civic society organisations.
Dlamini, who is leading the delegation, said they achieved their mission. He is the chairperson of the SADC Electoral Advisory Council.
Dlamini said: “The mission in our view was successful, we achieved what we set out to do and it was very informative and we are thankful to the stakeholders and are grateful for the overwhelming responses. The report will be published soon, two weeks will be the maximum period, I think I will say it won’t take more than two weeks.”
The opposition, Citizens Coalition for Change spent hours detailing its concerns, not least that the voters’ roll was not credible.
Observations
The Media Institute of Southern Africa’s (MISA) Tabani Moyo said: “It was quite a mutual and beneficial meeting to the people of Zimbabwe and media fraternity at large. And to brief the mission of our observations as MISA.”
It was further reported that some opposition political parties did not get a chance to meet the delegation, or to express their reasons for saying Zimbabwe was not ready for elections.
The People’s Progressive Party of Zimbabwe’s Timothy Chiguvare, said when they looked at SADC, they would like to register their unhappiness because they saw that the ZANU-PF Government had no credentials to supervise or manage this important election.
“We, as the opposition, are saying there is no hope for Zimbabwe until SADC, ECOWAS and Africa Union help us to break the unholy alliance between ruling party ZANU-PF and the military,” he said.
When Zimbabwe last held national elections in 2018, the results were disputed. It remains to be seen whether and how the SADC Electoral Advisory Council believes things will be different this time around.