ZEC Chief in the Dark on Election Date
Harare, June 30, 2012- Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Chairperson
Simpson Mtambanengwe says he is in the dark on when the country’s next
elections will be held.
Mtambanengwe told a meeting of civic society groups this week that he is
just like many Zimbabweans in the dark about the election date.
He said his office is working on speculation in preparing for the eagerly
awaited plebiscite which President Robert Mugabe ad his Zanu PF party says
should be held this year.
“When I came from Namibia in 2010 to take up this appointment it was
envisaged that the constitutional referendum will happen in July but now two
years down the line and we are approaching another July and the
constitutional draft has not gone before the principals and even if it does
there are certain steps that has to happen and one of them is the All
Stakeholders Conference,” said Mtambanengwe.
“I can tell and my honest answer is that we don’t know when elections will
happen, we are only waiting and speculating.”
Further pressed on what he will do if his commission is forced to organise
an election in an environment which is not free and fair the former Namibian
High Court judge told the gathering that he will cross the bridge when he
gets to it.
“If it comes to a crunch time, where we say do we stand by the principle or
we succumb to being bulldozed into conducting an election you know will not
be free and fair, that choice we will make when we get to that position,”
said Mtambanengwe.
Mtambanengwe himself a war veteran also took the opportunity of the meeting
to implore the country’s liberation war heroes who have often been
implicated in acts of political violence to live by the ideals of the
country’s war of liberation by safeguarding people freedoms and democracy.
“Political violence is sometimes associated with ex-combatants or war
veterans, we forget that in bringing liberation to this country those of us
who were involved as leaders in the struggle, actually taught them (violence
perpetrators) the philosophy of violence with the slogan that power comes
from the barrel of the gun and we continued with the ideas that you want
something you must use force,” said Mtambanengwe.
“We have to start re-educating them to say if you fought for freedom and
democracy and you go and force someone to vote the way you want and not the
way he or she wants are you abiding by the principals which motivated you to
sacrifice your life for the liberation of Zimbabwe. It’s a hard lesson to
teach, it takes time.”
Mtambanengwe said he holds probably the most difficult job in the country
because of the pressure that usually comes with elections in the country.
“As chairman of ZEC I am very much at the receiving end, I include my fellow
commissioners because we have a very awful responsibility. In the context of
peace, we bear a very heavy responsibility.
“Someone at the beginning of my tour of duty as chairperson of the
commission said something very profound and that without God’s intervention
you can’t do it. I believe so, the duty that has been put on our shoulders
is a heavy duty particularly in the context of Zimbabwe,” he said.