ZEC draws lessons from South African elections body

THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has said all citizens should play a part in ensuring that the country has a credible election in 2023.

The commission said it learnt from its recent visit to South Africa that it was not only the responsibility of the electoral body to ensure successful running of elections, but participation of all citizens. ZEC Commissioner Qhubani Moyo told

on Tuesday that one of their major take away from the visit was the high tolerance between political parties and how South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission continuously engages political players and stakeholders outside the election season to build political tolerance.

The meeting was attended by ZEC commissioners led by its chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba, its secretariat led by Mr Utoile Silaigwana and representatives of political parties represented in Parliament.

“Basically, it was a learning visit so that we try to understand the South African electoral system since they are going to elections on May 8,” said Mr Moyo.

“Our specific interest was the issues to do with conflict resolution mechanisms, as well as participation of stakeholders in the elections.

“We also wanted to understand their electoral environment. What we learnt from South Africa is that there is a high level of tolerance among political parties and that conflict resolution mechanism is anchored on the respect of diversity of views of different political parties.”

Mr Moyo said the South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission is given adequate space by different political players to exercise its mandate without any intimidation from both the ruling party and the opposition parties.

“We also learnt that there is continuous interaction between the Independent Electoral Commission and political parties outside elections, which allows them to tolerate divergent views,” he said.

“One big take away we got as Zimbabwe is that (we should) put in place an election dispute resolution mechanism that allows political parties, civic society and other stakeholders to meet continuously outside the electoral season so that they can learn to tolerate each other. This interaction gave us greater insight on how the responsibility of running elections lies with every citizen and not just the commission.

“As a result, it is everyone’s role to play their part from now till 2023.”

Mr Moyo said they met members of the South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission and the security sector to understand its roles in assisting the electoral body in executing its mandate.