By A Correspondent- The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has opened up over long standing allegations that it is hiding behind the State of Disaster Act to renege from implementing by-elections in a number of constituencies in Zimbabwe.

The country has lots of empty parliamentary seats caused by the recalling of MDC Alliance MPs by Thokozani Khupe and later Mwonzora.

In a statement the elections body said,

“ZEC periodically assesses its state of preparedness for all constitutionally mandated electoral process. The Commission works with provisional dates as the actual dates can only be proclaimed by the President.

“By-elections could be proclaimed earlier or later than the set provisional dates. The provisional dates are merely for planning and procurement of election material. The nation should be guided accordingly.”

Commenting on the statement political analyst Pedzisayi Ruhanya said,

“The President is the leader of a political party, a political contestant so using the power of incumbency and the vague nature of the law, he abuses that power to the advantage of ZANU PF. Usually when @ZECzim behaves like this, it would have been informed by discussions in ZANU PF.”