ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL COMMISSION TAKES GLOVES OFF AGAINST NELSON CHAMISA'S ALLIANCE

Things are getting very interesting now although I doubt Nelson Chamisa and his Alliance will be amused.

It's stunning, I tell you.

Although Nelson Chamisa believes he is going to meet Justice Chigumba tomorrow (Thursday July 12 2018), the ZEC Chair has decided that neither she nor her Commissioners will meet the opposition leader or any of his cronies.

In a heated phone call today with Justice Minister Ziyambi, Chigumba threatened to seek a court injunction barring the Alliance from "harassing" ZEC and disrupting, interrupting and impeding the implementation of its mandate at law.

The Justice Minister made it clear that he would not support that move, although he could not stop the ZEC Chair from proceeding with the action if she thought it suitable. He even went so far as to declare that his government would publicly distance itself from the move if it happens, just to register the position of government, since he could not order to proceed or not.

After this, the ZEC Chair then made it clear to her Commission that there isn't going to be a meeting with the Alliance tomorrow, despite what they have been told or what they believe.

Her position, which she has now crystallised even further, is simple enough:

"ZEC Commissioners are at the apex of the independent structure of the Commission. It is improper for them to meet with a political party participating in these elections because that would be a breach of the principle of independence.

There are other avenues that ZEC has opened up to political players in order for them to engage them and help the electoral process. One of these is the multi-party consultative forum, which is designed to help political parties achieve consensus on any issue that affects the process and is not governed by law. The Alliance will have to attend this forum, seek to build an agreed position with all other political parties and then bring an agreed position to ZEC, which ZEC will then implement."

Outside of this, ZEC has taken the position that it will not meet any political party or candidate outside of the multi-party forum.

They will not entertain any approaches, arguments or demands from any one political party or candidate. They will only entertain the multi-party forum, which it appears the Alliance has been boycotting because, according to ZEC, "they want special treatment." This special treatment, according to ZEC, will immediately raise concerns about their independence, so the Commissioners will never do this, there will be no meeting, even if the Alliance marches to ZEC "every single day to the ZEC offices with all 5 million Zimbabwean voters in tow, it is just not going to happen."

The ZEC Chair, I believe, has asked observers who she has engaged one question: "would you advocate that we violate the law or start introducing our own laws at ZEC in order to satisfy the demands of one party, which was involved in the process of crafting the laws that we are strictly following? Would that lawlessness make the election free, fair or credible".

We are made to understand that the response she got emboldened her to pursue this strict path (she refused to tell government what the response she got was).

So, in summary, folks, there will be no meeting at ZEC tomorrow, Thursday between Chamisa and the ZEC Chair or Commissioners. If Nelson shows up, then he is going to be very embarrassed because there will be no one to meet with.

And, to round it all off, ZEC has made up its mind that it will not implement anything being demanded by the Alliance if it falls outside of the law.

Basically, this means no monitoring of the transportation of the ballot boxes and ballot papers, no guarding of the storage facilities where the ballot papers will be kept. Basically, ZEC will follow the law by implementing the remaining process: 1. Announcing the number of ballot papers printed 2. Announcing when the ballot papers are dispatched 3. Announcing the source of the ballot paper as late as possible to avoid untrustworthy persons getting their own consignments and rigging the vote. 4. Counting and votes and announcing results.

These are the steps left and they are all that ZEC will do, they will not do anything else, not one thing, outside of these steps, unless that thing comes via a multi-party consultative process consensus position.

So, basically, we can say that this story is finished, ended. You will not hear anymore of it. The Alliance will continue making noise, yes, and they may even march again and again and again, but the state of affairs is ZEC will, from today until election day, completely ignore the MDC Alliance unless they bring something grounded firmly in the Electoral Act.

We are certain that even President Mnangagwa is not happy with this state of affairs!