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elections gather momentum.
This was revealed by ZEC deputy chairperson Mrs Joyce Kazembe while addressing members of over 30 local and regional election observer groups and journalists at the Harare International Conference Centre.

“Today as we speak we are actually carrying consignments for four provinces of completely printed ballot paper for Presidential elections, House (National) of Assembly elections and local authorities elections.

“There are actually six provinces that have been completed with respect to printing and the remaining four provinces, the job will be completed tomorrow (today) and the day after on the (July) 25th we will be able to dispatch the ballots to the provinces for onward transmission to the polling stations,” she said.
She said other requirements like the indelible ink, and polling booths were also in place.

ZEC has also provisionally identified 9 670 polling stations and Mrs Kazembe said a final list would be published on the date of the elections. Mrs Kazembe also welcomed some of the new provisions brought about by the new legal regime.

“While the new Constitution has brought in a few new features to the electoral systems, it is a framework that was negotiated and is acceptable to all key stakeholders.
“That entrenches the advantage of direct and proportional representation in electoral systems and is thus likely to bring fair representation in the electoral system and in the governing bodies within Zimbabwe’s body polity,” she said.

Mrs Kazembe, however, said some of the new provisions like the special vote had brought a lot of challenges to the commission.
“The legal framework is now full of details and legal complexities, the special vote for me in particular, which are meant to entrench fairness but can also provide a minefield to the unwary particularly to the commission as we experienced when we conducted the special vote,” she added.

Out of the 65 956 people that were authorised to vote, 2 688 were rejected with only 37 108 managing to vote.
The chaos that characterised the special vote was attributed to delays in printing of ballot papers by Printflow and Fidelity Printers, the two companies that had won the tenders for the job in what some insiders said was an act of sabotage.

The challenges brought to the Electoral Court by the MDC formations also contributed to the delays in the printing of ballot papers.
ZEC chief legal officer Ms Shamiso Chahuruva yesterday said ZEC would approach the Constitutional Court to determine the legality of allowing those who failed to cast their vote during the special vote to do so on  July 31.

“We want the Constitutional Court to look at the constitutional rights of an individual to vote as an over-arching or as over-riding to the provisions of the Electoral Act,” she said.

The Electoral Act stipulates that any person approved to vote during the Special Vote would not be eligible to do so during normal polling.
However, ZEC has said the failure by some of the members of the disciplined forces to vote two weeks ago was not of their own making and should be given an opportunity to exercise their rights on July 31.

Meanwhile, ZEC commissioner Mrs Bessie Nhandara said funds for the smooth running of the elections next week were available.