Outcry Over ZEC’s Candidate Nomination Fees Hike
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) leader Professor Lovemore Madhuku has criticized the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) recent hike in candidate nomination fees calling the move undemocratic.
According to Statutory Instrument, 149 of 2022, ZEC with the approval of the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs increased the candidate nomination fees which will see Presidential hopefuls paying US$20 000 from US$1000, legislators US$1000 from US$50, while for Senate and local authorities paying US$100.
In a Twitter post, Madhuku, a seasoned legal expert, insisted that the increase was against the tenants of the country’s constitution and democracy.
“Excessive, undemocratic, and unconstitutional. ZEC fails to appreciate that a free and fair election starts from that being a candidate must not be unaffordable to an ordinary politician,” he said.
Madhuku is among the 23 Presidential candidates who contested in the 2018 general election and his political party is a participant in the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD).
POLAD is a grouping of losing Presidential candidates from the 2018 elections that was formed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
In response to the same issue, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere concurred with Madhuku insisting the move was exclusionary in a Facebook post.
“The astronomical increase in candidate nomination and voters’ roll fees is grossly irrational, exclusionary and an attack on the right to make political choices.
“The attempt to stop ordinary Zimbabweans from participating in elections undermines the essence of a free & fair election,” Mahere said.
Lack of financial resources to campaign before an election is among the reasons why youths and women shy away from running as candidates.
Although political activist Lynette Mudehwe suggests the candidate nomination fees hike for Presidential candidates will weed out chancers, she pointed out that the poor would be denied a right to participate.
“Poverty is now systematically excluding you from political processes.
“Women, how many of us can raise US$1000 for the nomination fee?
