The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has been urged to make it clear whether the delimitation report it submitted to President Emmerson Mnangagwa recently is final or not.
When ZEC chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba submitted the report to Mnangagwa at State House, she revealed that the document was the final delimitation report and said she expected the President to gazette the report within 14 days.
However, government spokesperson Ndavaningi Mangwana, Mnangagwa’s spokesperson George Charamba, and the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Ziyambi Ziyambi said the report was not final.
NewsDay on Sunday requested ZEC to clear the air on whether the report was final or not, but the officials were reportedly evasive.
ZEC spokesperson Jasper Mangwana referred the question to Justice Chigumba.
The publication reported that several efforts to obtain a comment from Chigumba were in vain as her office repeatedly promised to give a response to no avail.
ZEC chief elections officer Uitloile Silaigwana requested the question in writing but had not responded by Sunday night.
Chief director for presidential communications, Anyway Mutambudzi said ZEC should respond on whether the report submitted to Mnangagwa was final or not.
Constitutional lawyer Lovemore Madhuku said it is critical for ZEC to state its position on the report. Said Madhuku:
Whether the report submitted is final or not should not be a private issue. Everyone at ZEC, from the messenger to the doorman, should know the exact position on that report.
This is a simple issue. That answer is a very critical one that must be given to the public so that they are informed of the correct position.
No one must put pressure on the President but on ZEC. It has the mandate to manage elections and not the President.