MDC will not recognise new constituency boundaries

By Tichaona Sibanda
9 January 2008

The head of the MDC’s election directorate, Ian Makone, said on Wednesday his party will not support the Zimbabwe Election Commission’s delimitation exercise because it is seriously flawed.

Makone said they would not recognise the exercise that is almost complete mainly because of the dialogue process, which is still in progress. The opposition had already rejected new constituency boundaries. The ZEC had announced these new boundaries for parliamentary constituencies for the country’s 10 provinces in December. This disregarded demands by the MDC to suspend the exercise until the conclusion of ongoing talks between the two parties under South African President Thabo Mbeki’s mediation.

‘Our reasons for objecting are that the dialogue between the MDC and Zanu-PF is still in progress. We’ve insisted that at the end of the talks, the voters’ roll needs to be looked at carefully because it is horribly flawed and inaccurate,’ Makone said.
The country goes to vote in key presidential and parliamentary elections in March, with polls to be held concurrently for the first time in the nation’s history. The number of parliamentary seats has been increased from 120 to 210.
The government claims that over 5,6 million people have been registered to vote and the 210 parliamentary seats will get an average of over 26 000 voters a constituency. Following the new demarcations, the ZEC announced that Bulawayo province now has 12 constituencies, up from 7.
Matabeleland North Province now has 13 constituencies also up from 7, the same as Matabeleland South.
Mashonaland West constituencies jumped from 9 to 22, the Midlands from 19 to 28, Manicaland 15 to 26, Mashonaland East 11 to 26, Mashonaland Central 10 to 18, Masvingo 14 to 26 and Harare and Chitungwiza 18 to 29.

The MDC spokesman for Manicaland, Pishai Muchauraya, pointed out that the new demarcations show a deliberate bias against the opposition. Zanu PF strongholds gained more constituencies in comparison to traditional MDC strongholds - mainly urban centres and the two Matabeleland provinces.

‘For example here in Manicaland many constituencies have been added in farming and resettlement areas where people get free farming implements from government. In Chimanimani we now have two constituencies, North and South, to accommodate the Zanu-PF rivals. In Chipinge there are now 5 constituencies, up from 2. All are areas perceived to be strongholds of Zanu-PF. In Makoni the 2 added constituencies are in resettlement areas, areas notoriously pro-Zanu-PF,’ Muchauraya said.
In Gutu district in Masvingo province the two current seats belong to Zanu-PF. Three more have been added. But Muchauraya said the major MDC strongholds have gained just 28 out of the 90 new constituencies. The remaining 62 have been allocated to predominantly rural Mashonaland provinces.

‘Of the 210 constituencies, 143 are now rural constituencies, (Zanu PF strongholds) while only 67 are urban or peri-urban (MDC strongholds). Zanu-PF already has an advantage of more than two-thirds majority before people even go to vote. This is insane, it’s a discredited exercise not worth noting,’ added Muchauraya.