The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure in NYANGA
PRINCIPALS under the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) platform today convened in Nyanga to unpack the draft Electoral Amendment Bill submitted to Parliament by civic society and pick pertinent suggestions for inclusion into their political and electoral reforms proposals to Government.
They will also interrogate the Independent Mechanism Complaints Process Bill under Section 210 of the national constitution.
18 political parties were represented at the meeting that was attended by technical partners from the Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (Zesn).
Zanu PF rep Cde Paul Mangwana said POLAD members were agreeable to most of the proposals.
“We are looking the whole election management system, interrogating the proposal from Zesn. There are areas where we are agreeing, some need further consultations with our political parties and there are also areas where we cannot accept. We are looking at areas where we can have consensus and then make a joint proposal to the Electoral Act,” said Cde Mangwana.
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) president Professor Lovemore Madhuku said deliberations on electoral and political reforms we meant to ensure better and freer environment and better laws by 2023.
“We are going through the whole Electoral Act and all other laws that are related to elections proposing the reforms that we would want to see. For example, we have already agreed that blind voters can use braille and must no longer be called assisted voters. We should have braille ballots that are accessible by blind voters,” said Prof Madhuku.
