Zimbabwe Rule of Law Journal |17 one’s political rights, particularly the right to a free and fair election, enshrined in section 67 (1) (a) of the Constitution. Part III The transparency and public accountability argument Every Zimbabwean citizen has a constitutional right to access the national voters’ roll in order to enforce public accountability by ZEC regarding the management of elections. This view is predicated on the fact that ZEC has a constitutional mandate to ensure proper custody of the national voters’ roll and at the same time, it has the obligation to discharge this function in a transparent and accountable manner, especially when requested to do so. Transparency and accountability are necessary normative values upon which every constitutional democratic State must be based.70 Transparency is a normative constitutional value which demands that State institutions must discharge their duties and exercise public power in a manner that is open to the citizens as well as other State institutions.71 State accountability encapsulates the obligation of State institutions entrusted with public power and public resources to be answerable for the exercise of their power and utilisation of resources.72 Thus transparency is the idea that state affairs should be conducted in a manner that is open to public scrutiny and accountability is the idea that the State must account for its actions. A democratic society must incorporate adherence to these two values, amongst others, because public power is less likely to be abused when exercised openly and when the State is legally obliged to account to the citizens. The Preamble to the 2013 Constitution shows that the Zimbabwean society has committed itself to establish a united, just, prosperous nation, founded on transparency as one of the cardinal values.73 Additionally, transparency and accountability are entrenched amongst Justice Mavedzenge and Doug Coltart. A Constitutional law guide towards understanding Zimbabwe’s socio-economic human rights (2014) at 18 71 Ibid 72 See Black’s Law Dictionary 2nd Edition 73 See paragraph 9 of the Preamble to the Constitution of Zimbabwe, 2013 70