ZEC calls for input on strategic plan

THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) wants objective reviews from seconded staff, political players, civic society organisations and election observers who participated in last year’s harmonised elections on how the election was managed and to capture the aspirations of all Zimbabweans on how they would like to see election management in the future, ZEC chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba has said.

In a report titled “ZEC Strategic Plan 2020-2024” released a fortnight ago, Justice Chigumba said the views formed the basis of ZECs’ new strategic plan ahead of future elections.

“The new strategic plan intends to realign the operations of ZEC to be electoral cycle compliant with emphasis on rebranding, alignment of electoral laws and regulations to the Constitution, institutional capacity development, delimitation of electoral boundaries, and enhancement of electoral processes and procedures,” she said.

Justice Chigumba said ZEC had also made inclusivity as its core value.

”A major development in the new strategic plan is the addition of inclusivity as one of our values. This was done in order to recognise recent trends to make election processes participatory for men, women, youths, the elderly and people with disabilities,” she said.

She said ZEC also conducted a post 2018 election gender survey which examined factors that affected women’s participation in the election.

In the same report, ZEC Chief Electoral Officer Mr Utloile Silaigwana concurred saying the strategic plan was a thrust towards improving the management of elections through the electoral cycle programming.