HARARE – Zimbabwe should first clean up the voters roll and implement proposed electoral reforms and ensure they have taken root before calling a new vote, the country’s elections body has said, appearing to rebuke political leaders who are calling for polls next year.

Both President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have said Zimbabwe will hold elections next year to choose a new government to replace their coalition administration.

But Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairman, former Harare High Curt Judge Simpson Mutambanengwe said rushing to hold a new vote before thorough preparations will inevitably result in a disputed outcome. 

"The timing of elections will also influence the prospects of any future election," Mutambanengwe said while addressing participants at a civil society meeting held in Harare last Thursday night to discuss elections in the country.

Mutambanengwe said: "Problems could arise if elections are proclaimed before proper preparations can be made and electoral reforms have been passed and have taken hold.

"The prospects for next elections are dependent on a number of factors. Some of the factors may be within the control of the commission provided it is sufficiently funded, but many are out of the commission's control."

Mugabe and Tsvangirai were forced to form a power-sharing government after disputed elections in 2008 and were supposed to terminate the union after a referendum on a new constitution. That process is already a year behind schedule.

Mutambanengwe said the electoral commission had to first grapple with a voters’ roll that is in shambles and also lacked enough financial resources to hold elections which would not be challenged.

He said: "commissioners were appointed on the 31 of March 2010 which is almost six months since their appointment, but they still not have received their conditions of service.

"Conditions of service for the secretariat staff are poor and not in line with the conditions of other election management bodies in the region."

Zimbabwe’s elections have in the past been blighted by violence and charges of vote rigging, which saw the European Union and United States slapping sanctions on Mugabe and senior members of his ZANU-PF party.

By Zimonline