We give you the latest monitoring government’s response to the pandemic by ZESN. The latest issue gives us insights into the impact of Covid-19 on food aid distribution, elections and political activities. Read on.
Elections in Age of Covid-19
LTOs reported that ZEC Provincial and District registration centres were open during the reporting period. However, reports generally show that the numbers of people who registered to vote remained low as has been the trend in previous months. Further, the number of people who turn up to register is anticipated to increase dramatically as ZEC announced that the Commission will conduct a voter registration blitz that will create 900 voter registration centres. Registration will be in two Phases, phase 1 starting on 6 December 2021 will run for 15 days, phase 2 starting on 28 December will run for 35 days.
The Ministry of Health instituted regulations whose effect among other things is to suspend by-elections indefinitely. These regulations are contained in Statutory Instrument (SI) 225A . Electoral Stakeholders were generally surprised when the deputy Minister of Health and Child Care recently said that his Ministry was not responsible for stopping by-elections as it did not have the role to supervise elections.
Selective application of COVID-19 regulations is evident in that some churches such as the African Apostolic Church have been allowed to gather in numbers in excess 16 000 congregants with the full knowledge and tacit approval by the Government as the event was covered by the State-owned media . The same church subsequently convened a much bigger gathering in the Midlands Province that was addressed by Ambassador Matemadanda.
Access the full report here (525KB PDF)
Source: Zimbabwe Election Support Network
