4 000 voter educators to be deployed

two-day workshop with faith-based organisations in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission deputy chairperson Mrs Joyce Kazembe said training of the provincial election officers (PEOs) on the proceedings of voter education commenced yesterday and would stretch up to mid next week.

“The mobile registration exercise will begin towards the end of next week or the week after. The exercise will cover 1 963 wards in the country and there will be between two and four voter educators per ward depending on the availability of funds.

“The training of PEOs which is the training of trainers started today (yesterday) in Harare. District election officers (DEOs) are trained next according to our plans followed by the voter educators and that should be completed by mid next week. When all this has been done, voter education will roar into life,” Mrs Kazembe said.

She said the first phase of the mobile voter registration exercise which ended on May 19 recorded more than 200 000 first time voters.

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Mrs Kazembe said Bulawayo recorded the lowest figure for first time voters in the country.
“A total of 204 041 first time voters were recorded between 29 April and 19 May. Bulawayo recorded 5 068, Matabeleland South had 9 403 and Matabeleland North recorded 13 536 while Midlands had 23 404 first time voters.

“Mashonaland East recorded the highest number of first time voters with 35 266, Mashonaland West had 31 570, Mashonaland Central recorded 29 635, Manicaland recorded 24 024 while Masvingo had 20 610 and Harare recorded 11 525,” Mrs Kazembe said.

She said 214 233 adults were able to register new identity cards while 268 574 people inspected the voters roll throughout the country.

The new voter registration would be conducted in accordance with the provisions of the new constitution, which President Mugabe signed into law last week.

The new Constitution, gazetted last week, provides for an additional 30-day registration period.
The latest developments bring the total number of registered voters to about 5, 7 million.
In 2008, the national voters’ roll stood at 5 934 769. The figure had been trimmed to 5 589 355 by last November after which it rose to 5 651 600.

Treasury has released $11,6 million towards the second phase of voter registration.
The new exercise would cater for thousands of prospective voters who failed register to vote during the just ended mobile voter registration programme.

Zimbabwe is geared for the holding of harmonised elections after the expiry of Parliament on 29 June.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court, sitting as a Constitutional Court, ruled that harmonised elections should be held by July 31.