HARARE - The parliamentary portfolio committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary affairs will hold only seven public hearings on the Electoral Amendment Bill because of a funding shortfall.
Harare West MDC MP Jessie Majome, who heads the committee, said the committee was unable to visit Mashonaland West and Mashonaland East provinces because Parliament had no money to cover all the 10 provinces.
She spoke after the Election Resource Centre (ERC) had said the parliamentary committee was treating the Bill with limited scope by planning to conduct only seven hearings countrywide, set to begin this Friday.
“We had intended to carry out the outreach countrywide but we are being limited by lack of finance,” Majome told the Daily News. “We had also wanted to do another public hearing on the National Prosecuting Authority Bill but it was also hampered by lack of funds.”
Majome said they now hoped that members of the public from Mashonaland West and Mashonaland East would contribute their submissions through writing to the committee.
“It is now a requirement in the Constitution that we have to carry out a public hearing on every amendment we want to put into any Bill,” she said.
“This is going to be the first public hearing in this Parliament because we don’t have the funds.”