ELECTION WATCH 24/2018
16th June 2018
Two Veritas Court Cases on Elections to be Heard on Monday 18th June
in High Court, Harare
This Monday, 18th June, the High Court in Harare is due to hear two cases brought by Veritas to improve the conduct of the coming general election. Both cases raise constitutional issues affecting the Electoral Act and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission [ZEC]’s functions under the Constitution and the Electoral Act.
2nd Case 2.30 pm
To Enforce ZEC’s Duty of Transparency
Court papers for the case are available on the Veritas website [link] and [link]
Veritas v ZEC and Attorney-General
Transparency means openly and without secrets
The Constitution does not define “transparency”. It is for the courts to decide what “transparency” means in the context of ZEC’s responsibility for conducting elections. In this case Veritas invites the court to give meaning to the concept of “transparency” to ensure that ZEC’s operations in the run-up to the coming elections are “done in an open way without secrets”.
The more ZEC carries out its functions in an open way without secrets the more likely it is to be able to deliver a credible election.
The court order Veritas asks for goes into great detail as to what ZEC’s duty of transparency means in relation to specific aspects of its responsibilities. In essence the court is asked to declare that ZEC is legally obliged to make available for public scrutiny far more information about how it conducts its operations that it has been willing to do up to now.
