adminLoveness Mpofu, Sunday News Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has called upon Bulawayo residents to take advantage of the continuous Biometric Voter Registration exercise to register to vote, as the province is still lagging far behind the expected targeted of 400 000.
Speaking at a consultative meeting that was organised by the Women Institute for Leadership Development and Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association last week, Zec’s district elections officer for Bulawayo Mrs Sithembiso Khuphe said Bulawayo has not even reached the 300 000 mark yet the target was to register 400 000.
“Bulawayo is still behind because we are still very far from reaching the 400 000 target. Currently, we have 243 211 people who have registered as of Friday last week.
“We have not even reached 300 000, yet we are targeting to have 400 000 people registered by the end of the continuous registration.
“We are still inviting residents of Bulawayo to come and register. Continuous registration is ongoing and we are registering people at Zec offices in Famona.”
Mrs Khuphe said people should do away with negative perceptions towards voter registration and voting.
“Many times people say they won’t register to vote because their vote changes nothing. However, what they don’t know is that when they do not register they are creating a false population of Bulawayo. This is because our constituencies are made up by registered voters.”
Mrs Khuphe said at law, the continuous biometric voter registration must end 12 days after the Nomination Court.-@lvydvy1
derick.khumalo