Story by Fungai Jachi
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is set to conduct extensive research on technological advances in election management as a way of improving electoral efficiency.
ZEC chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba says one of the key priority areas that the electoral body will focus on is the use of technology in elections as the commission moves to improve the electoral process.
“We are going to be focusing more research on technological advances in election management. The use of technology in elections has become a standard across board, but i am not going to rush the use or implementation of technology without extensive research because we have to see how it will benefit the main stakeholder which is the voter. In the next two years, will be doing the research as we plan to visit other sister commissions in our quest to come up with better ways of running elections,” she said.
She also spoke on the diaspora vote.
“There has always been issues surrounding diaspora vote and so we will also be conducting research on that to see how other countries do it. Some countries in SADC have introduced a partial diaspora vote for the presidential election only. There is need to change the law if parliament is serious about implementing diaspora vote,” explained Chigumba.
Justice Chigumba says the commission continues to recommend the registration of political parties as a means to bring sanity in the political space.
