Staff Reporter

Independent Norton Legislator, Temba Mliswa has defended the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for being an independent and non-partisan organization, while urging other political players to desist from the habit of vilifying the electoral body without justification.

In a tweet yesterday, Mliswa said that contrary to assertions by other political players that ZEC was compromised, the organization was actually discharging its constitutional mandate diligently.

“This week I attended a ZEC event on delimitation and I should say to a large extent, the institution is doing well.  Our major problem is inherent suspicion which we feed with anything and everything. At times what is needed is clarity in communication with the ZEC,” posted Mliswa.

Mliswa added that the public was misinformed considering some of the attacks on ZEC.

“The institution, operating within and along the current electoral laws has done well. Some of the issues we raise are due to lack of information, leading to attacks on the ZEC. Issues like the diaspora vote actually require legislative amendments and not ZEC,” he said.

Another political commentator only identified as BigYoutt Masie commented on his Twitter page in agreement with Mliswa, acknowledging that ZEC is in fact a transparent organisation.

“I went to ZEC center to check my registration and polling station. I had very good help and support.  Perhaps before passing negative comments, these opposition leaders and their members should go do a one on one with the ZEC” he said.

Members of the opposition and their affiliate organizations such as Team Pachedu, are in the habit of negatively smearing the ZEC as an incompetent and highly biased organisation, in order to set an agenda that they would use in the event of a defeat in the forth-coming 2023 Harmonised General Elections. Meanwhile, ZEC has encouraged stakeholders in the spirit of cooperation to discourage misinformation in the electoral management sphere and to crosscheck facts where confusion or uncertainty arises by giving each side the right to reply before publishing stories that discourage voters.