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Herald Reporter

THERE is no law that governs the holding of referendums in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairman Retired Justice Simpson Mutambanengwe has said.
Responding to media enquiries on the sidelines of a stakeholders’ meeting between ZEC, Jomic and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission in Harare yesterday, Justice Mutambanegwe said a referendum would only be conducted after the country comes up with a new Referendums Act.
He said the other option was to amend the current Act.

Justice Mutambanengwe said the current Referendums Act was promulgated in 2000 for the referendum held that year and was now invalid for future referendums.
“As you may be aware, the conduct of a referendum is governed by the provisions of the Referendums Act (Chapter 2:10), the current Referendum Act was promulgated in 2000 and makes reference to structures that were in place then, to conduct elections as well as referendums, that is the Register General of Elections.

“The conduct of referendums is now the function of the commission and therefore there is a need for the Act to be amended first before the referendum can be held.”

Justice Mutambanengwe said ZEC had engaged the Ministry of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs to come up with a Bill that will be passed into law.

“The commission has held discussions with the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs (Eric Matinenga), who is responsible for administering the Referendums Act, to discuss possible amendments to the Act.
“We understand that a draft Bill is being prepared and it will have to pass through Parliament and be assented to by the President for it to be law.

“Strides are being made to ensure that once Copac has completed its work, ZEC will be able to step in and take over by conducting the referendum.”
Minister Matinenga said the whole Act needed to be revamped to make it suitable for current conditions.
“We have placed principles before Cabinet and they were referred to the Cabinet Committee on legislation.

“The committee discussed it and said they wanted more clarification on certain aspects and we are still in possession of those principles.
“We are revisiting the principles and it is our hope that we will present them to Cabinet again next week or in two weeks’ time,” he said.
Constitutional lawyer, Professor Lovemore Madhuku, yesterday said the country needed a valid Referendums Act if it was to hold elections soon.

“The (current) Act is invalid and this calls for action. It’s a matter of days to complete the amendments or come up with the Act that is if the people in charge of the process are serious.
“It is clear that we are going tohave a referendum and correct procedures

have to be followed,” he said.

Meanwhile, Justice Mutambanengwe said ZEC was ready to hold elections and had been making “fervent” preparations for the conduct of the referendum and subsequently elections.
He said ZEC needed over US$223 million for the two processes.

“The referendum needs US$80 million, while the rest is for elections. The budget is an initial budget because the Referendums Bill, if passed into law, may have provisions that have financial implications on the commission, which also needs budgeting.
“Technically, we are ready, all we need are the requisite resources and the legislation to be put in place,” he said.

Zimbabweans, Justice Mutambanengwe said, should inspect the voters’ roll and advise the Registrar-General of any transfers or deaths.
“Deceased voters can only be removed from the voters’ roll through the registrations of their deaths. To avoid a repeat of the 2008 election related violence, ZEC is organising meetings on conflict management aimed at finding solutions to electoral related conflict.

“ZEC is not partisan as some people purport. The commission consists of members who went through a rigorous Parliamentary interview and were selected from a list of 12 nominees submitted to the President by the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and Orders.
Yesterday’s meeting was aimed at coming up with an agreed thrust in election-related conflict resolution mechanisms.

The meeting also explored ways of building synergies in managing conflict.