By A Correspondent| Pressure continues to mount for the under fire Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Chairperson Priscilla Chigumba after some of her commissioners rejected the preliminary delimitation report.
Recently some Zanu PF affiliated organisations went public, castigating ZEC for failing to consult widely when they embarked on the delimitation process.
Inside sources within ZEC told this publication that the situation at electoral mother body is very bad with some commissioners reportedly pushing for Chigumba to resign.
“The majority of commissioners showed Chigumba a middle finger, they wrote reports distancing themselves from the delimitation report. They submitted their reports to relevant authorities, their argument was there was no consultations the secretariat did their things on their own. It is believed that Chigumba was paid to do a sham delimitation exercise that will impact Zanu PF negatively. Chigumba is working with some senior Zanu PF members who want to dislodge Mnangagwa.
“All commissioners are now against Chigumba, they are not happy with the way she handled the whole process there were no consultations, it was just a desktop research,” the source said.
ZEC spokesperson Jasper Mangwana unwittingly confirmed that ZEC is likely to use old boundries in next year polls.
“The commission is working flat out on the delimitation exercise, and when we are ready, we will appraise the public on the latest developments.
“However, if this exercise is not completed or the boundaries are proclaimed less than six months before the election, we will have to revert to using the 2007-2008 electoral boundaries.
“It is also important to note that this is the first time we have done the delimitation exercise in terms of the 2013 Constitution.
“Again, this is also the first time we are responsible for the demarcation of ward boundaries, which is more administrative and has a huge effect on resource allocation, as well as community development,” Mangwana said.
Recently, a Zanu PF affiliate, Men BelievED accused ZEC of failing to consult important stakeholders.
“As a community of interest in the delimitation of electoral boundaries, we believe that the commission did not have sufficient time to execute a thorough and effective process, and we want to express our anger in the commission’s failure to define a path of fair representation and contribution of the thoughts of young people.
“Boundaries that seek to disrupt our way of life, roll back government progress in supporting the future of young people, and that seek to divide the unity in our communities that our ancestors long established have no place or relevance in the development of our society.
“We believe the way boundaries are configured in our communities seeks to disrupt our devolution agenda.
“The commission’s proposed boundaries failed to take into consideration the results of the 2022 population census and did not consider the demographics of the youths and how they must benefit from the process,” the organization said.
Another grouping named Councilors4ED also discredited the preliminary delimitation report accusing ZEC of not consulting key stakeholders.