Harare (New Ziana) – A special parliamentary committee on the delimitation of the country’s electoral boundaries on Friday said new constituencies and wards drawn up by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for this year’s elections had shortcomings which needed to be addressed before being adopted.
In a report to parliament, the Ad hoc Committee on the Analysis of the 2022 Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Preliminary Report on the Delimitation Exercise, said ZEC flouted the constitution in some areas in drawing up electoral boundaries for the upcoming polls.
The most glaring of the errors noted by the committee was ZEC’s reliance on the distribution and numbers of the adult population from last year’s preliminary census figures to draw up electoral boundaries, instead of basing this on the overall population of a given geographic area as provided for in the constitution.
Boundaries based on a segmented population count, the committee noted, not only flouted provisions of the constitution, but also deprived constituencies and wards so drawn up of certain privileges such as funding from both local and central government.
“The use of the selective segment of the population census which is referred to as the adult population in the ZEC report is perceived to be a non-conformity to the constitutional values and principles enunciated in section 3 (2) (j) and (k) which relate to the equitable sharing of national resources, including land and devolution funds, respectively,” the committee noted.
“A population census measures the entire population including non-voters and children who are also affected by delimitation of electoral boundaries in respect of service delivery,” it said.
The committee said it also found it faulty for ZEC to rely on the preliminary census data, simply as the final report might differ.
A delimitation exercise heavily relies on data from a latest census to re-draw electoral boundaries.
“The committee took judicial notice of the fact that the final census report is yet to be finalised and published and acknowledged the impediment of (the) Covid 19 pandemic as a factor that delayed the holding of the population census at the time it had been scheduled which had a bearing on the timing of the delimitation exercise,” the parliamentary ad hoc committee said.
“In light of this, the committee noted that ZEC purportedly considered the available preliminary census report in an effort to comply with the constitutional obligation of delimitation,” it said.
Other shortcomings noted by the committee include wide variances in the number of people making up constituencies and wards in different parts of the country in the ZEC preliminary delimitation report, and lack of supporting technical and other data and evidence for the boundary changes made.
“The committee noted that the report shows evidence of violations of sections 161 (3) and (4) of the constitution providing for equal number of voters in the boundaries of constituencies and wards. The committee observed that this provision was not fully adhered to as there are instances where some constituencies and wards had more registered voters than others within the same province. A case in point is Binga district which had 70 988 voters but had the same number of wards with Tsholotsho district which had 38 619 voters and Bubi which had 33 295 voters,” it noted.
It said some technical data in the delimitation report, such as maps, was either too complicated or poorly interpreted by the electoral body to be of easy or much use to the electorate.
In the delimitation exercise, ZEC used new Southern African Development Community (SADC) technical guidelines for drawing up electoral boundaries, but the committee said the regional benchmarks might have been rushed for the electorate, and therefore the old, familiar and easier system should have been used.
This also included topographical data that was used in the delimitation exercise, which the parliamentary committee said was not ‘user-friendly.’
“The committee noted that the co-ordinate system used by ZEC was too complicated for the ordinary citizens to understand, and interpret spatial data represented on the maps. It is the committee’s considered view that ZEC had an option to use a simple geographic coordinate system that represents location in terms of degrees, minutes and seconds, such that users can simply enter the coordinates on google maps to identify locations in their respective wards and constituencies,” it noted.
“While the coordinate system used by ZEC was in line with the new models of mapping in the SADC region, ZEC should have considered other user-friendly methods which can be understood by ordinary citizens,” it added.
The committee, while conceding that not every stakeholder input can be captured in the delimitation exercise, implored ZEC to address faults it had pointed out before drawing the final report.
The delimitation exercise, whose preliminary report was presented to President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week, is part of preparations for general elections expected to be held mid-year.
Apart from the presidential segment of the poll, all other components of the election will be fought in electoral boundaries demarcated by the delimitation exercise.
New Ziana
