400k register to vote in Midlands

Freedom Mupanedemo Midlands Bureau
Over 400 000 people have so far registered under the ongoing Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise in the Midlands province. The Zanu-PF Midlands provincial leadership is confident they will surpass their target of 800 000 voters by the end of the exercise. In an interview yesterday, Zanu-PF deputy provincial chairman Cde Goodwill Shiri said latest figures obtained from the provincial elections office showed that the figures continued to swirl.

“We, from time to time, collect figures from the office of the provincial elections officer so that we take them for updates at our provincial coordinating committee meetings and the latest figures show that as the province, we are on course and we will manage to beat our target of 800 000 voters,” he said. “The statistics we are receiving are encouraging. In Gokwe South, 106 199 people have registered so far.

“In Gokwe North, we have 85 220 and Gweru 86 397.” Cde Shiri said over 66 000 people registered so far in Mberengwa, with the voter registration blitz now going to Chirumanzu. “The blitz has been taken to Chirumanzu and we expect people to take advantage of the blitz to register so that we can surpass our target,” he said.

Cde Shiri urged all party structures to make sure that people registered as voters. “It is everyone’s duty to encourage people to go and register under the BVR,” he said. “People in rural areas need to be constantly reminded on the importance of this exercise, hence it is the duty of everyone of us to make sure that we reach our target as the province.”

Meanwhile, Member of Parliament for Mberengwa North constituency Cde Tafanana Zhou said the majority of villagers in his area could not register under the first phase of BVR as ZEC officials visited the area before officials from the Registrar-General’s Office came to issue the necessary documents.

“In my constituency, we had a challenge in that the BVR team came ahead of those from the Registrar-General’s Office who were issuing new plastic IDs.

“This resulted in many people who are still holding to old metal IDs failing to register.”