By Elijah Chihota

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba has indicated that the appointment of ZEC Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Utoile Silaigwana was above board as all due processes were followed contrary to social media allegations that it was irregular.

As a standard procedure, when one is to be appointed to a high profile office, vetting is carried out to establish a candidate’s suitability.

According to ZEC, Mr Silaigwana was also subjected to the same process in which he emerged victorious.

“It should be noted that the appointment was done after interviews were conducted by the full Commission which sat as an interview panel and vetted several applications before the appointment of the current CEO was effected,” said Justice Chigumba in a statement issued this week.

ZEC said Mr Silaigwana was not new to elections administration given that he supervised several elections in the country.

 “For the record, the current CEO was appointed on merit (as) he is a qualified elections administrator with 17 years’ experience in that field,” added the ZEC Chairperson.

The electoral commission also said that Mr Silaigwana had the requisite qualifications which made him a suitable candidate to occupy that office.

 “He is a holder of a Masters’ Degree in Elections Administration from an internationally recognised university as well as being an accrediting facilitator for Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections (BRIDGE), a modular professional development programme on electoral processes,” said Justice Chigumba. 

Following the appointment of Mr Silaigwana as the new ZEC CEO, opposition members particularly those in the MDC went into overdrive on the social media accusing both him and ZEC of presiding over flawed elections. It has also become the norm that each time the MDC loses an election edition, its members are quick to point fingers at ZEC without even introspecting themselves to find out how they lose elections.