Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

JUSTICE Chigumba, the ZEC Chair, briefing observers at the Harare International Conference Centre earlier today, doubled down on a trend of refusing or failing the transparency test. She is within the law on everything she has done, but ignoring the key test of transparency impacts massively on the credibility of this poll, to the detriment of whoever end up winning this election. We have always defended ZEC against the baseless accusation thrown against them by an opposition that is bent discrediting the election in the hope of it being declared not free and fair and thereby, hopefully, forcing a Government of National Unity with Nelson Chamisa as Prime Minister, but the needless lack of transparency by the electoral body is now wildly carvoting in sabotage territory. Take Justice Chigumba's briefing with Observers today at the Harare International Conference Centre. One thing that has raised alarm bells is her announcement that the electoral body will not be using indeli...

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 ...

Justice Chigumba meeting with the European Union Observer Mission to Zimbabwe earlier this week Under immense pressure from the government of Zimbabwe and the opposition parties, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will now take the step of appointing an international audit firm to monitor the printing, transportation and storage of ballot papers and boxes throughout the Zimbabwe electoral process currently under way. An epic battle has been under way behind the scenes between President Mnangagwa's government and the Electoral body around the issue of transparency. The ZEC Chair, Justice Chigumba, who has been described as "intransigent" by government sources, has been adamant that she and her Commission must not be seen to taking instructions from any body or organisation in Zimbabwe. Her main argument has been around the precedent set by being seen to be commanded by parties or even government in Zimbabwe. Two weeks ago, a suggestion was then put to Justice Ch...

Justice Chigumba, Chair of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission At a press conference this morning, Justice Chigumba, Chair of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, confirmed what we told you yesterday, that ZEC's official position is that  the voters roll that has been given to the public is the final voters' roll which includes the voters who registered during the verification period. The ZEC Chair says this puts paid to any claims that the voters' roll is fake. The information puts the MDC Alliance at a loss, primarily because they have no way to verify this and have to wait until voting day itself to see if there are any people in any ward who will vote but do not appear on the voters' roll supplied to candidates and the public. The objective of stopping anyone from pulling a move to delay or stop the election using discrepancies in the voters' roll has now been frustrated and neutralised. A court judgement is in place regarding the provisional voters ro...