#ElectionsZW: Report to the police, we don’t have time to read letters says ZEC
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairperson Priscilla Chigumba says her commission has no time to read letters of political violence, adding that people should go to the police instead.
Political parties and other electoral stakeholders have been complaining over the commission’s response to cases of political violence.
However, speaking during a meeting organised by SAPST, Justice Chigumba said her commission has no mandate to deal with violence.
She said that is the job of the police and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission.
‘’What we find as the perennial problem Honourable (Innocent) Gonese, is that we need more robust voter education for stakeholders to understand that simply going on social media to say I wrote a letter to ZEC saying there was politically motivated violence that is not where your remedy lies.
‘’That is not going to assist you, because we are in the middle of an election, we are running around we are purchasing ballot paper and ink. We have a cardboard box full of letters saying dear ZEC you know what someone slapped me because we belong to different political parties.
‘’Ok report to your nearest police station. Report to the Human rights commission they have investigative powers. We simply don’t.
‘’And what I find is the electoral commission continues to get blamed for the failure to act in those circumstances because people expect it to act, and they expect it to act because they don’t understand that our mandate is purely administrative. ‘’So, to belabour the point ZEC has sufficient power to discharge its current mandate. if Parliament were to see it fit to give us a quasi-judicial mandate and give us increased power, we will discharge our mandate to the best of our abilities based on the will of Parliament which is the will of the people,’’ she said.
#ElectionsZW: Report to the police, we don’t have time to read letters says ZEC
