*ZIMBABWE NEEDS ELECTORAL REFORMS, NOT A ZANU PF 2030 AGENDA AND A LIFE PRESIDENCY* *1) UNCONSTITUTIONAL DELIMITATION OF CONSTITUENCIES.* The delimitation exercise that was conducted in 2022 by the ZEC was marred with controversy. In every way. ZEC failed to observe the constitutional requirements for such an exercise, and we also took note of the divisions amongst serving commissioners of the ZEC regarding the veracity of the report. The majority of its members were gagged, never to make any press statements about the report to this day. The main allegations we made against the report were that it constituted gerrymandering, and that it failed to observe the correct methodology for calculating the 20% variance constitutional rule with respect to minimum and maximum sizes of the 210 electoral constituencies. The MDC President Hon Senator Douglas Mwonzora brought a legal challenge against the Delimitation Report of 2022. Other political players fought against this noble course and even vilified him as a coward, afraid to contest in elections. They even went further to send Jeremia Bamu as a friend of the court just to oppose the Senator Douglas Mwonzora. To this day, a lot of questions remain regarding the delimitation exercise for the following reasons: In its Delimitation Report of 2022, the ZEC rightly states that: “the Constitution recognises the impracticability of having an equal number of voters in each constituency by allowing the Commission to depart from this requirement within a stipulated margin. In this case, the Constitution in section 161(6) stipulates that ….“no constituency may have more than 20% more or fewer registered voters than other such constituencies”. The constitution in section 161(6)a-f also lists factors that need to be considered when delimiting since they are important during the exercise.” However, the ZEC also goes on to state that, “Based on the provision of section 161(6), the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission then calculated the 20% deviation from the national average voter registration expected in each constituency, which was 27 640. This yielded a deviation of 5,528 voters. Since the average number of registered voters was regarded as a stable benchmark against which delimitation of constituencies was conducted, the deviation figure was added to the national average to determine the maximum number of registered voters that a constituency delimited would contain i.e., 33 168.” The use of the average number of voters per constituency is not consistent with the provision of section 161(6) of the new Constitution that was adopted in 2013. The word “average” appears in section 61A(6) of the old Constitution of Zimbabwe under which it was permissible to calculate the minimum and maximum permissible number of voter per constituency by using the national average as the baseline. That word “average” does not exist in section 161(6) of the new Constitution, which deals with the same subject matter. The difference between section 61A(6) and section 161(6) of the old and the new constitutions respectively is far from being merely technical. In the new Constitution, and in the context of section 161(6), the maximum deviation is 20% of the voters registered in the constituencies. The new Constitution uses actual constituency by constituency registered voter population, not the national average number of constituency voter population to calculate the permissible deviation from the requirement that constituencies must have an equal number of voters. Mathematically, the two methods produce very different results and affect the equality of the vote with respect to the elections to parliament. This honestly tells you that the election was rigged a year before the actual voting. *2) INTIMIDATION OF VOTERS (FAZ FACTOR)* The rural vote is compromised and even some urban areas like Harare South and Hunyani Constituencies, through intimidation attributed to a shadowy group called Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ), which is said to be a quasi-security intelligence organisation which is led by the deputy director of the dreaded CIO. The group was deployed to all wards and around 36,000 villages. People were intimidated to vote in a particular manner and were warned that it would be easy to determine who voted against certain parties. *3) POSTAL VOTING CONTROVERSY* We in the opposition MDC have always raised concern over postal voting by members of the security sector and those posted from foreign missions, and their votes are compromised by the alleged coerced voting. We suspect that these people always vote after being coerced to vote in a particular way in the presence of their superiors, thus compromising the secrecy of the vote. *4) MEDIA REFORMS: STATE-OWNED MEDIA* The State-owned media houses remain biased against the opposition political parties and candidates. The content of the public broadcaster and the State-owned newspapers always favours the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) and paints the opposition as a counter revolutionary, a puppet and unpatriotic, which is not true in any way. This is contrary to the relevant provisions of the Constitution, the Electoral Act, and the _Revised SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections_, which requires State-owned media to be impartial. The only time they mention the opposition MDC is when they are vilifying it and praising the ruling party. *5) NOMINATION FEES* The nomination fees set by ZEC for a person to stand for election are too high and restrictive for open and transparent political participation by the general members of the populace. Politics has been made to be a game of the rich and has totally deviated from the founding principles of the liberation struggle, that of social democracy ( _Gutsa Ruzvinji_). The Zanu-PF Government has made Zimbabwe a capitalist state, as the presidential nomination fee was raised from US$1,000 to US$20,000 (U.S. dollars). Nomination fees for a constituency Member of Parliament increased from US$50 to US$1,000 (U.S. dollars). These amounts depart paragraph 4.1.7 of the SADC Principles and Guidelines that requires Member States to guarantee an environment of open contest with no undue exclusion and restrictions on anyone who is eligible and qualified to stand as a candidate in any election. *6) FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY AND ASSOCIATION* The Maintenance of Peace and Order Act (MOPA) sets out a process for notifying the Zimbabwe Republic of Police of the intention to hold a campaign activity. In this respect, just like its sister law in colonial Rhodesia the Law and Order Maintaince Act (LOMA), it has maintained the stranglehold on all opposition forces, and the ruling party ZANU PF uses this as a weapon to ring-fence several constituencies they deem no-go areas for the opposition. Vilification on the state broadcaster as well as on social media by Zanu-PF and also by certain members of the opposition who seek to conquer the minds and hearts of the people is also making it difficult for the people of Zimbabwe to freely participate and associate with a political leader and party of their choice. *CONCLUSION* The Zanu-PF Government is fast moving towards establishing a life Presidency by the so-called 2030 agenda without addressing the necessary reforms that will definitely get Zimbabwe from international isolation and get the economy running again. The MDC still stands firm on where it stood before, that electoral reforms are a must in this country before any election is held, and a new delimitation process must be done in terms of the law. We also refuse the 2030 agenda because it is taking us back to the Mugabe-era. The MDC stands ready to complete the unfinished business of the liberation struggle. The dreams and aspirations of the Zimbabwean people will come to fruition under a Social Democratic MDC Government. *By* *Lloyd Damba* *Presidential Spokesperson/ Director of Communications in the office of the President* *And Shadow Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services.* *Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)*