Bankrupt ZEC requires US$240m for polls

Comment & Analysis
Tendai Zhanje THE financially-beleaguered Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) needs close to US$240 million to bankroll the constitutional referendum, clean-up the voters’ roll, delimit constituencies, and conduct elections if they are to be held this year.

Tendai Zhanje

THE financially-beleaguered Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) needs close to US$240 million to bankroll the constitutional referendum, clean-up the voters’ roll, delimit constituencies, and conduct elections if they are to be held this year.

 

The estimated budget comes after ZEC chairperson Justice Simpson Mutambanengwe’s admission on Tuesday that the commission was too bankrupt to hold a general election before year-end as wanted by President Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe and some hardliners in his Zanu PF party insist that money for the polls would be found despite Finance minister Tendai Biti’s insistence that government coffers were empty.

According to ZEC’s five-year strategic plan, the commission needs nearly US$94 million for the referendum, US$8,6 million for the delimitation exercise, US$20 million for the voters’ roll and US$117,45 million for the elections. The strategic plan was launched in the capital on Tuesday.The US$94 million for the referendum includes money for pre-referendum  preparations, voter education, election materials and conducting the referendum.

For the delimitation, ZEC will use the US$8,6 million for logistics, allowances, administration and compiling the delimitation report.  Their estimated expenditure for general elections includes money required for pre-elections preparations, voter education, election materials, vehicle hire and conducting the elections.

The commission also pointed out that they would need about US$30,5 million if there were going to be by-elections in 2011.Biti, currently abroad on government business, could not be reached yesterday on whether the treasury would make available the money.In an interview with the Zimbabwe Independent on Tuesday, Mutambanengwe said it was improbable for ZEC to conduct elections this year given their financial position.

“I don’t know if there is going to be enough money for elections,” he said. “In order for us to have the capacity to hold elections this year, we need the resources, which we do not have at the present moment…cleaning up of the voters’ roll involves voter education, training of personnel, among other things.”

He said the cleaning up of the shambolic voters’ roll was a “must, a necessity” and that if resources were available it would take “at least two to three months” to undertake the task.

Last year, Biti in the 2011 national budget allocated US$30 million for the referendum on the new constitution and set aside $20 million for by-elections, voters’ roll, delimitation of constituencies and infrastructure for ZEC, although Mugabe had asked him to provide $200 million for the referendum and elections.

On Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s call for the country to adopt a bio-metric voters’ roll as one of the steps towards attaining a free and fair election, Mutambanengwe said: “For the time being I can’t say it’s possible, but we will want to go bio-metric.”

He said the commission was in touch with people and organisations that can help them set up that system.

Mutambanengwe said his commission was also looking at how other countries have succeeded in using it.

On politically motivated violence and intimidation, which has flared up in Harare and other parts of the country since Zanu PF launched its election campaign, he said it was not ZEC’s responsibility to deal with it.

“Violence isn’t the responsibility of ZEC as such,” said Mutambanengwe.

The constitution-making process, which is supposed to lead up to elections, has stalled due to lack of funds.

Mugabe has said elections would be held with or without a new constitution. He said they can always revert to the old constitution, minus Amendment No19, if the new constitution is rejected or inconclusive.

Tsvangirai said last week: “I want to tell you today, that executive authority in this country is shared and the president has no power to announce an election date without consulting the prime minister.”

He said the key to achieving a free and fair election was to ensure “a new, biometric voters’ roll, a stable and secure environment, a credible electoral body with a non-partisan secretariat, a non-partisan public media, security sector reform and a referendum on the new constitution. We cannot have an election before we achieve these key milestones”.