Zimbabwe: Delimitation Commission

Updated October 2007

The Delimitations Commission was abolished by the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No 18) Act 2007 and its functions were transefered to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

The Delimitation Commission was originally established by section 59 of the Constitution (1980) and had a limited technical (but sensitive) task - it determined the boundaries of the country's (then) 120 parliamentary constituencies (Molokele 2005).

The EDC reported directly to the President and the commissioners were appointed by the President (Molokele 2005).

The constituency delimitations of the EDC were controversial and it was criticised for a lack of transparency. Thus the Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (2005) said: "The report of the Delimitation Commission which came out in December 2004 was not well publicised, as evidenced by the high numbers of people who were turned away at polling stations because they were in the wrong constituencies or lacked proper documentation."

As a consequence of the lack of transparency on the part of the EDC accusations of partiality were made. When the opposition Movement for Democratic Change strongholds of Harare and Bulawayo each lost a constituency and rural Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front strongholds gained constituencies, this was interpreted as a gerrymandering exercise on the part of the Delimitation Commission.

References

CONSTITUTION OF ZIMBABWE 1980, incorporates all amendments until October 2007, [www] http://aceproject.org/ero-en/regions/africa/ZW/zimbabwe-constitution-of- zimbabwe-2008-1 [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 30 May 2008).

CONSTITUTION OF ZIMBABWE AMENDMENT (NO 18) Act, 2007, [www] http://aceproject.org/regions-en/eisa/ZW/Constitution%20of%20Zimbabwe%20Amendment% 20No%2018%20Act%2C%202007.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 30 May 2008).

MOLOKELE, D 2005, "An overview of the Zimbabwean electoral institutions", ZimOnline, February, [www] http://www.zimonline.co.za/opinionread.asp?ID=9405 (page off-line 30 Oct 2007).

ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL SUPPORT NETWORK 2005 "ZESN Statement 2005 parliamentary elections", [www] http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/elec/050403zesn.asp?sector=ELEC [opens new window] (accessed 21 May 2008).