Hon Jacob Mudenda has been re-elected as the Speaker of Parliament in a development that presence him another opportunity to preside over the legislative agenda of the Lower House of the next 5 years. The ERC remembers Hon Mudenda as the Speaker who took citizen participation in the law making processes very seriously by firstly accommodating civil society space to engage with Parliament and by spearheading deliberations on a petition filed by the ERC and other organisation calling for the full alignment of the Electoral Act with the Constitution. Given the shared observations by the international observers who were invited to the 2018 harmonized elections and those of domestic observations and coupled with the issues raised in the Constitutional Court Presidential Election Petition, it is clear that genuine electoral reforms are inevitable if Zimbabwe’s future electoral outcomes are to be credible, free, fair and beyond dispute. The legal framework of elections is one of the three spheres of reforms that should be nursed ahead of the 2023 elections and the 9th Parliament will be the theater of the much needed legal reforms to improve our elections.

The new Speaker of Parliament is no stranger to the politics of law reform given the polarized nature of the legislature and the political interests that will be at stake in deciding what needs to be changed or what needs to be maintained. The Speaker, in his commitment to upholding the Constitution in the discharge of his duties, must be prepared to rise above his political persuasions to genuinely strengthen Zimbabwean laws and to hold the Executive and state institutions accountable. The 9th Parliament should not be allowed to have a business as usual approach to the law making process. Zimbabwe needs a strong legal framework for the credibility of our elections to improve. Zimbabwe also needs strong institutions that are accountable in the discharge of their mandates. Hon Mudenda has become one of the key drivers of both infrastructure critical to improved elections. His performance as Speaker of Parliament will be measured against the quality of the law making process and the nature of laws to be passed together with the performance of the Executive and state institutions I’m accountable governance. While he may not be held liable for any failures on his own, his leaderships of Parliament over the next five years will be crucial in showcasing if indeed Zimbabwe has a new dispensation.

The ERC looks forward to engaging the new Speaker and the entirety of the 9th Parliament in pursuit of genuine electoral and democratic reforms to enhance the credibility of all future elections including by-elections that will happen between now and the next election.