Animal Farm

By Youngerson  Matete  On the 18th of November 2022, the government of Zimbabwe through the ministry of justice parliamentary and legal affairs gazetted the electoral reform bill (HB 11, 2022) which sought to amend certain sections of the Electoral Act (Chapter 2;13), (NO.25 of 2004). The Parliament of Zimbabwe went on to conduct public consultations as per the demands of the constitution. The consultations were done on the 30th and 31st of January, 2023 on radio and zoom platform. The consultations have since ignited a debate about electoral reforms ahead of the 2023 harmonized elections in Zimbabwe.  It is against this background that I seek to analyse the importance of the electoral reforms to both the government and the opposition. I also take time to analyse the electoral reform bill (HB 11, 2022) that is currently before the Parliament of Zimbabwe and the manner in which the consultations were done and its effects. After the 2018 harmonized elections, various local, regional and

Young people pausing for a picture after successful registering to vote There has been rumours that the 2023 elections in Zimbabwe can be postponed or will be held under the current boundaries. The conversation was ignited by the preliminary delimitation report that was released by ZEC which was a total disaster. The disastrous preliminary delimitation report led to many people speculating that maybe the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was deliberate in coming up with a scandalous delimitation report to either necessitate the Postponement of Elections or to have Elections conducted using the current boundaries which were drawn in 2007/08. Either theory cannot be dismissed given the nature of the regime that we are dealing with. After all, there might be a formula to this madness. ZEC’s Failure to interpret the law On the 26th of December 2022, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission through its Chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba released a scandalous preliminary delimitation report. What