Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to Hold Post-Election Conference

ZEC to hold post-election conference

March 12, 2014
Nyemudzai Kakore
Herald Reporter

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will next week hold a three-day post-election review conference to deliberate on key issues relating to the conduct of the 2013 harmonised elections, Chief Elections Officer Mr Lovemore Sekeramayi said yesterday.

He told journalists in Harare that the conference would discuss lessons learnt from the elections and what needed to be done to improve the conduct and management of the country’s elections.

“The objective of the conference is to focus on the role of ZEC as the main institution responsible for the management of elections in the country, the focus will also be devoted to the role it played during last year’s referendum and harmonised elections,” Mr Sekeramayi said.

“As we may all be aware that the 2013 referendum and harmonised elections were the culmination of the political process under the auspices of the GNU and we are also aware that the 2013 elections were held under the new Constitution of Zimbabwe and adopted following the referendum which was held in March 2013.

“What the commission intends to do is to sit down with all the stakeholders in the electoral process and review the conduct of the ZEC referendum and the harmonised elections.”

The conference, which will run from March 19–21, will bring together key national, regional and international stakeholders such as constitutional bodies, civil society organisations, media, political parties, development partners and representatives from the Sadc Electoral Commission Forum, African Union and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.

Issues to be discussed include preparations and conduct of the 2013 elections, Zimbabwe’s electoral legal framework and the environment and its capability to support the running of harmonised elections.

Citizens’ participation and conduct of election monitors and observers will also be discussed.

“We are holding this for the first time as we try to build our nation and strengthen the Commission’s role in managing the country’s electoral process. The conference will assess how the elections were managed by ZEC and would be looking at the full electoral cycle, the pre-election period, the election period and the post-election period,” Mr Sekeramayi said.

The AU, Sadc, Comesa, the African Caribbean and Pacific countries and the rest of the progressive world endorsed the elections as free, fair, peaceful and credible while the Anglo-Saxon alliance that conceived and sponsored the MDC-T refused to give a thumbs-up in the wake of MDC-T’s crushing defeat.

In the final reports, the AU, Sadc, Comesa and ACP countries made a number of recommendations to help improve the conduct of elections in the country.

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