Professor Arthur Mutambara has said the preliminary delimitation report is invalid and unconstitutional, therefore, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) should redo the whole exercise.
The preliminary delimitation report was tabled in Parliament last week on Friday by Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Ziyambi Ziyambi.
Ziyambi said the total number of registered voters was divided by 210 (the total number of constituencies) resulting in a national average of 27 640 voters per constituency.
He said they used the formula to determine voter population thresholds permissible in line with section 161(6) of the Constitution.
A percentage variance from the national average was then determined using a maximum registered voter threshold of 33 169 and a minimum of 22 112 voters.
Mutambara, who was Deputy Prime minister in the 2009-2013 Government of National Unity (GNU), argued that ZEC misinterpreted the Constitution. He said:
The delimitation process has to be redone according to Section 161 (6) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
The current delimitation report is invalid since it is in violation of the current Constitution of Zimbabwe’s Section 161 (6).
Of course, in carrying out the delimitation exercise, there must be no mischievous intention to disadvantage or advantage any political players. There must be safeguards against such shenanigans.
The current Constitution of Zimbabwe’s Section 161 (6) looks similar but is different from Section 61A(6) of the old Lancaster House Constitution of Zimbabwe.
Section 161 (6) stipulates that the difference between the allowable minimum and maximum voters in a constituency should be less than 20%, whereas Section 61A (6) (Lancaster Constitution) stipulates that the difference should be less than 40% (ie 20% + 20%)
It is important to note that the old Lancaster provision 61A (6) is better phrased than the current provision 161 (6).
Section 161 (6) should have explicitly said 10% above or below the average number of voters allowable in a constituency.
Members of Parliament last week requested the voters’ roll to enable them to critique the delimitation report. | NewsDay