How will Zim implement women, youth quotas in the absence of an electoral law?

By Phillan Zamchiya | Jun. 21, 2023

The rules for the women and youth quotas for the August 23 poll, are still unclear two days before the nomination court sits on June 21, 2023.

On August 23, 2023, Zimbabwe is going to have five elections under the proportional representation even though national focus has been on the directly elected ward councillors and Members of Parliament. Proportional representation is an electoral system in which participating political parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes polled for them.

The rules for the women and youth quotas for the August 23 poll, are still unclear two days before the nomination court sits on June 21, 2023.

On June 14, 2023 Zanu PF’s political commissar Mike Bimha wrongly instructed his party structures to nominate five men and five women for the provincial council as we shall see later.

The Herald reported on June 19 that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is inviting political parties participating on August 23 to submit party lists for women and youth quotas as provided for in the Constitution but with no clarity on how to do it in the electoral law. For an election to be democratic, there must be procedural certainty.

Well, the purpose of this article is not to argue about the legality or illegality of the proportional election representation but to use political research in order to clarify how Zec intends to hold the five elections under the proportional representation in the absence of electoral laws that can give us procedural certainty for the youth and women quotas. So, what are these five elections to be held under proportional representation and how will they be done and allocated?

The first is the Senate party list which is not new. This is whereby a participating party will submit six names per province to represent it in the Senate. The list will follow a zebra system, whereby number one should be a woman, number two a man, number three a woman, number four a man, number five a woman and number six a man. This means three women and three men per province. A candidate must be 40 years old, be a registered voter in the particular province and the nomination fee is US$200 or the local currency bank rate equivalent per party list.

After the vote, the senatorial seats will be allocated as follows. An election officer shall determine a quota by dividing the total number of votes obtained by a political party’s National Assembly [hereafter, interchangeably used with parliamentary] candidates for that province by six (the number of senatorial seats for each province).

To illustrate, if all the participating parties’ parliamentary candidates get a total of 600 votes in Bulawayo province, then the quota for that province will be divided by six (number of senatoral candidates for the province) to give 100. So if party X gets 300 votes out of the 600 votes, election officials will simply divide the number of party X’s votes (300) by the quota (100) which translates to three seats. This means the first three candidates on the party list will make it to the Senate and the last three will be out.

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The second is the women party list for National Assembly which is also fairly known. The participating party has to submit six names per province to represent it under the national women assembly party list. Reader, please note that this list must consist of women only. Out of the 60 women Members of Parliament nominated on a party-list system, 10 must be youths under the age of 35 years, and women and young women with disabilities must be represented on the party list.

The candidate must be 21 years old, be a registered voter in the particular province and the nomination fee is US$200 or the local currency bank rate equivalent per party list. After the vote, the seats will be allocated according to the same formulae described above for the senatorial seats.

The third is the youth party list for the National Assembly which is a new animal with no implementing legal framework. I, therefore, had to rely on political research. Reader, the party has to submit two names per province. The logic is that one must be stated as substantive and another as an alternative or standby candidate.

The candidate must be between 21-35 years old, be a registered voter in the particular province and the nomination fee is US$200 or the local currency bank rate equivalent per party list. This means a party needs a total of 20 (10 substantive and 10 on standby) names under the National Assembly youth party list. After the vote, the participating party with the highest number of votes will be allocated the provincial quota which is one seat.

The fourth is the provincial or metropolitan council party lists. Of essence here is that the party list must consist of women only. This is where the Zanu PF political commissar got it wrong as stated earlier. The confusion about this remains. The participating party has to submit a list of 10 female candidates per province of which women with disabilities should be included. The candidate must be 21 years old, be a registered voter in the particular province and the nomination fee is US$200 or the local currency bank rate equivalent per party list.

The list must be according to the order of preference with the one at the top being the first preference for the party. A quota shall be determined by dividing the total number of votes obtained by a political party’s parliamentary candidates for that province by 10 (the number of seats for each province).

For example, if all the participating parties’ parliamentary candidates get a total of 500 votes in Manicaland province, then the quota for that province will be divided by 10 (number of seats) to give 50 as the quota. So, if party X gets 50 votes out of the 500 votes in the province, election officials will simply divide the number of party X’s votes (50) by the quota (50) which translates to one seat.

This means the first candidate on the party list will make it to the council and the other nine will be out.

The fifth and final one is the new local authority (councillors) party list not specified in the electoral law. Reader, of importance here again is that the party list must consist of women only. There has been a lot of confusion about this too.

The candidate must simply be 21 years old, be a registered voter in the particular local authority and note that there are no nomination fees. A party can only submit a list of names of women equivalent to 30% of the total number of wards in a local authority in which it intends to field two or more candidates for direct election as councillors. Let me try to simplify this whole exercise through an example.

Chipinge Rural District Council has 30 delimited wards, so its quota will be 30 times 30 (total number of wards) that is 900 divided by 100.

This will give an additional nine women party list councillors. Let me give another example as my mathematics teacher, the late Mr Muyambo would do.

If a local authority has 60 wards, its quota will be 30 times 60 (total number of wards) that is 1 800 divided by 100 to give an additional 18 women party list candidates.

But how will these additional women’s seats be allocated to parties? The election officer shall determine the quota by dividing the total number of votes obtained by a political party’s councillors for that local authority by the number of additional party lists as calculated above. Let us go back to Chipinge RDC to illustrate.

So, if all parties’ local authority candidates in Chipinge Rural District Council get a total of 300 votes, then the quota will be 300 (the total number of votes) divided by nine (additional female party lists) to give 33 (the nearest whole number). If party X happens to get 66 votes in Chipinge Rural District Council, that will be divided by 33 (the quota) to give two seats. This means the first two candidates on the party list will make it and the other seven will be out.

I hope I have used my political survey to clarify how Zimbabwe intends to hold the five elections under the proportional representation even in the absence of electoral laws for the women and youth quotas that can give us procedural certainty as required in a democratic polity.