By Paul Nyathi

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has cut ties with its suspected Central Intelligence linked chief elections officer, Constance Chigwamba.

Chigwamba was seconded to the post of Zec chief elections officer in June 2015 by former president Robert Mugabe.

Prior the unceremonial ZEC appointment Chigwamba was employed as permanent secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet.

The electoral commission handed her letter terminating her employment early this week after the Zec board’s meeting of Friday last week, advising her that she was being sent back to the Public Service Commission (PSC) with effect from March 1.

Zec chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba, said that the decision to have Chigwamba recalled was arrived at by the commissioners who unanimously felt that having a chief elections officer on secondment from the PSC undermined the organisation’s independence.

“It was a unanimous decision made by all commissioners resolving to send her back to the PSC with effect from March 1 in order to guarantee the independence of Zec processes going into the elections,” Chigumba said.

Chigwamba had since her appointment in 2015 continued to earn her pensionable remuneration such as salary, housing and representation allowance from the PSC while also drawing allowances from Zec.

This, according to Zec commissioners, was in violation of Chapter 2: 13 of the Electoral Act.

According to the Electoral Act, “the remuneration and other benefits payable to the chief elections officer and other employees and agents of the commission shall be paid from the funds of the commission”.

In terms of the same Act, it is the prerogative of the electoral management body to hire or fire and pay the commission’s chief elections officer in order to maintain its independence.

Apart from her drawing allowances from Zec and the PSC, the chief elections officer had also lost trust and confidence of Zec staff and commissioners which made her position with the electoral management body tricky and untenable.