By Rudo Saungweme

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has raised fears that it might fail to complete the forthcoming delimitation exercise before the 2023 elections since they have to wait for the results of the national census slated for 2022.

Speaking during a ZEC workshop in Bulawayo last week, ZEC Chairperson, Priscilla Chigumba expressed fear that waiting for the 2022 national census will put ZEC under stress in light of 2023 elections. She said the situation was likely to expose the electoral body to avoidable errors and criticism from stakeholders.

Chigumba said the commission was going to lobby Parliament to amend the constitution to ensure that the two important processes are delinked.

The ZEC Chairperson said the workshop was part of ZEC’s planning process ahead of the polls. A similar workshop was held in May this year at Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and Management (ZIPAM).

Speaking at the same workshop, Chief Election Officer Utoile Silaigwana said that the commission last conducted the delimitation exercise in 2007/2008. As a result, Silaigwana said the commission had noted that 45 constituencies exceeded the maximum threshold of 32 071 votes while 60 constituencies were under a minimum threshold of 21 381.

 Some stakeholders raised concern over the funding of ZEC projects by United Nations Development Program (UNDP) which they said always came with strings attached.

“UNDP Technical Advisor, Achar Saeed Malik has strange interest in ZEC affairs. We have noted that he leaks our plans to the opposition party. He also tries to influence our decisions. For example he has been relentlessly fighting to have ZEC adopt the e-voting,” said one commissioner in a side line interview.