Members of Parliament clashed over recommendations made in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) observer report on the country’s 2023 elections.
Speaking during Wednesday’s Parliament session Mbizo legislator Corban Madzivanyika pressed the government on steps taken to address concerns highlighted in the report.
These included issues around access to voter registration, high nomination fees, coverage by state-owned media and the availability of voting materials.
“Certain aspects of the 2023 elections did not meet the criteria of the SADC principles. How far has the Government moved to address those recommendations?” Madzivanyika said.
In response, Transport Minister Felix Mhona standing in for the Justice Ministry downplayed the concerns, insisting the elections had been broadly endorsed.
“The observers are at liberty to give their reports. That did not actually write off our elections to be credible. They were deemed to be credible, fair, and transparent… The generality of observers who superintended over our elections were very happy,” Mhona said.
However, Chiredzi Central MP Ropafadzo Makumire raised a point of order, saying that as Zimbabwe had recently chaired SADC, it could not afford to ignore the bloc’s own report.
“We need to embrace the SADC report since we are also its members,” Makumire said.
Mhona reiterated that the outcome of the elections was legitimate pointing out that all sitting MPs were products of the same process.
“The fact that we are seated in this august House made sure that it was a properly conducted election. Let us now focus on the future so that if we have anomalies, we address them as we gravitate towards another election” he said.
The SADC report has remained a point of contention with opposition parties citing it as evidence of electoral shortcomings while government officials insist the poll was conducted transparently.
