Story by John Nhandara
The National Assembly and Senate resumed sitting this Tuesday to debate the Ad hoc Committee’s findings and recommendations on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) preliminary delimitation report.
This comes after the Ad hoc Committee tabled its findings and recommendations to the two houses last Friday.
Debate in the National Assembly was mainly on ward boundaries with legislators arguing that they were delimitated above or below the minimum thresholds.
Shamva South Member of Parliament, Honourable Bramwell Bushu noted, “We don’t need to have a municipality over flowing to another because administratively, it causes a lot of problems. We have an example like Pfura which had a number lower than the threshold.”
Attention was also drawn to the link between the delimitation exercise and the 2022 population census results.
“There was need for an interaction between those who were collating information and the people. Also, without a census report it’s hard to validate why some constituencies lost wards,” said Chegutu West legislator, Hon Dexter Nduna.
“Delimitation should be done after a census would have taken place and results finalised. Census indicate issues like migration of citizens from certain areas,” said Hon Prince Dubeko Sibanda, Binga North legislator.
Debate will continue this Wednesday after which parliament’s recommendations will be submitted to the President for consideration.
