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Farirai Machivenyika-Senior Reporter 

THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) delimited some ward boundaries below the maximum and minimum thresholds as stipulated by the Constitution, Parliament’s ad-hoc committee set up to analyse the preliminary Delimitation report, has said.

The ad-hoc committee presented its report to Parliament in Harare yesterday.

Apart from failing to meet the required thresholds, the ad-hoc committee also noted that ZEC did not provide sufficient information to justify the changes in ward and constituency boundaries it made.

The report was presented in the National Assembly by the ad-hoc committee’s chairperson and Zanu PF Chief Whip, Cde Pupurai Togarepi.

“In its analysis, the Committee however, came up with key findings and observations which include the following; ward boundaries that were delimited above and below the maximum and minimum thresholds, insufficient information in descriptions of wards, a highly complicated coordinate system, unspecified map scale, unlabelled wards, topographic features not presented on the maps, maps that do not show old and existing boundaries, lack of justification on changes in boundaries in specific wards and constituencies, polling stations not indicated on the maps, use of preliminary census data; and possible misinterpretation of the minimum and maximum threshold,” reads part of the report.

According to the preliminary report, there were notable changes in seven provinces, with some constituencies collapsed and others merged.

The ad-hoc committee recommended that ZEC reconsiders some of the changes it made to ward and constituency boundaries.

“While the Committee appreciates that it is not possible for ZEC to meet the expectations of all the stakeholders in this exercise, it is the Committee’s considered view that all the issues raised in this report, particularly those that are inconsistent with provisions of Section 161 of the Constitution, will be resolved before the finalisation of the Report on the delimitation exercise. 

“As espoused in Section 119 of the Constitution, Parliament has an obligation to protect the Constitution and ensure that the State and all institutions and agencies of Government at every level, act constitutionally and in the national interest,” the ad-hoc committee said in its report.

The ad-hoc committee also noted that ZEC had used figures of registered voters instead of the entire population as envisaged in the Constitution.

“Section 161 (1) of the Constitution requires delimitation to take place as soon as possible after a population census. Population is a crucial consideration for delimitation and is listed in Section 161 (6) (f) as one of the factors to be considered in attaining equal number of voters in a constituency or ward. 

“The population census contemplated in this section is the Final Census report. The Committee noted that ZEC considered the registered voters’ population and not the total population. According to the report, they only used the census preliminary report to correlate the registered voters’ population with the adult population. The use of the selective segment of the population census which is referred to as the adult population in the ZEC report is perceived to be a non-conformity to the constitutional values and principles enunciated in Section 3 (2) (j) and (k) which relates to the equitable sharing of national resources, including land and devolution funds respectively. A population census measures the entire population including non-voters and children who are also affected by delimitation of electoral boundaries in respect of service delivery,” the report further reads.

The ad-hoc committee also noted that ZEC had not uniformly applied the threshold that no constituency or ward may have more than 20 percent more or fewer registered voters than other constituencies or wards.

“The collapsing of constituencies and wards affects the legitimate expectations of stakeholders who may be adversely affected by that decision. The explanation by ZEC during the oral evidence was that constituencies with fewer registered voters were collapsed to give registered voters to the constituencies which had more numbers of the registered voters.

“However, in some instances, the formula was not applied consistently as wards or constituencies with more registered voters were collapsed to boost numbers in wards of constituencies with fewer numbers. The case in point is Chikomba Central which had 16 611 voters which was collapsed to cede voters to Chikomba East and Chikomba West which had 14 240 and 30 187, respectively. A similar case was Gutu South with 18 645 voters which were collapsed to cede voters to Gutu Central and Gutu East which had 21 700 and 16 822 voters respectively. ZEC confirmed to the meeting that it was those constituencies with lower voter population which were being collapsed to meet thresholds in bigger constituencies,” the report further reads.

Parliamentarians are expected to debate the report on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.