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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
THE Political Actors Dialogue (Polad) has started engagements on electoral reforms with the aim of contributing to Electoral Act amendments to improve the running of polls in the country.

Polad is also working on coming up with recommendations on the setting up of an independent complaints mechanism in cases involving members of the security sector.

The Polad committee on governance and legislative agenda held a workshop with civic society organisations in Bulawayo yesterday to discuss electoral reforms and how to implement Section 210 of the Constitution which deals with the setting up of an independent complaints’ mechanism to handle cases of misconduct involving the armed forces.

The independent complaints mechanism can be operationalised through an Act of Parliament.

In an interview on the sidelines of the workshop, Zanu-PF’s secretary for legal affairs Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana who is the party’s representative in the platform said Polad remains the critical platform to address political and socio-economic issues affecting the country.

He said Zanu-PF will continue to engage with other political parties and hear their views on governance through Polad.

“We are dealing with electoral reforms as we can never have a perfect situation. But we continue to examine our electoral laws to say is this the best way to handle our elections or is there a better way to handle elections. We are also looking at the various reforms taking place in terms of the Constitution,” he said.

“We have been dealing with the security sector reforms which has always been talked about. There are proposals in terms for implementing reforms as it relates to setting up of an independent security sector tribunal where members of the public can raise complaints against the conduct of members of the security services.”

Cde Mangwana said Polad engagements will put to rest claims that Government does not want to implement reforms.

He said recommendations made will be tabled in Parliament for debate and possible adoption.

People’s Democratic Party president Ms Lucia Matibenga, who stood on behalf of the committee’s chairperson Professor Lovemore Madhuku said contested elections have always dominated the country’s electoral cycle, hence Polad was looking at ways of strengthening the democratic space through contributing to reforms in the amendment of the Electoral Act.

“As Polad we have a governance and legislative agenda committee and under that committee we are working on electoral law reforms. And issues of electoral law reform are not new to the discussions and discourse in this country. With that in mind, we are working with organisations and experts in this (election) area who have been working in this area for a long time. We are working with them so that they share with us their researched information and documents so that as Polad we also sit down to craft our own position on that discourse from an informed point of view,” said Ms Matibenga.

She said Polad is set to come up with an electoral reforms recommendation paper to be tabled before Parliament for consideration.

Ms Matibenga said Polad’s discussion also touched on Section 210 of the Constitution and how it should be opearationalised.

“Section 210 seeks to address the perception that the security services are acting with impunity and that they can do what they want. The implementation of this part of the Constitution is the medicine if I may call it. It will address those issues which the public were raising because by nature, the security services have got their own internal mechanisms. But they also interface with the public and we are saying in the event that the public has a complaint there should be an institution; be it a commission or a tribunal which will handle complaints and provide remedy for civilians,” she said.

Election Resource Centre (ERC) board chairman Mr Trust Maanda commended Polad for bringing under one room various political players so that they can share their views on improving the handling of elections in the country.

“What is significant is that political parties in their diversity have found unity. And also, civic society together with political parties have found common ground to discuss issues that perhaps might not be easy to raise elsewhere. As civic originations we want to tell political parties and even by a way of extension, Government because it is represented what we perceive in terms of the law to ensure the electoral playing field is level,” said Mr Maanda.

Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn) programmes manager Ms Ellen Dingani said her organisation partnered with Polad as she felt civic society players have invaluable information that political players can use in coming up with an amended Electoral Act.

“In brief we are calling for the strengthening for the independence of Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. We are also calling for the recognition of the role of observers so that they work around the electoral cycle as opposed to just observing on the election day and observe other key process like voter registration. We are also advocating for gender parity in all levels not just only in the National Assembly or Senate but also in local authorities,” said Ms Dingani. — @nqotshili