BVR figures worry Midlands

Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Bureau
Zanu-PF Midlands has approached the party’s political commissar Major- General Engelbert Rugeje to make a formal request to Government so that Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) continues with the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) blitz which ended last Tuesday.

ZEC had registered 644 913 voters in Midlands province against a target voter population of 865 185, while in total 4 727 376 people registered to vote nationally. The projected voter population for 2018 is 7 224 129.

Zanu-PF Midlands province has made a request to extend the blitz by a few more days to allow areas like Mberengwa, Gokwe South and Gokwe South districts that have poor road networking to be accessed register people to vote.

Most areas in the Midlands province in Mberengwa, Gokwe North and Gokwe South were disconnected when bridges and roads were swept away by floods when Cyclone Dineo ripped through the country early this year.

Zanu-PF Midlands provincial chairperson Engineer Daniel Mckenzie Ncube said there was need for another blitz that specifically targeted the three districts where there had been a low turnout for BVR due to various reasons.

Eng Ncube said the province recommended the extension of BVR to allow more people to register to vote, particularly those in areas that were less accessible. He said the major contributing factor was the issuing of national Ids which was lagging behind thereby affecting or hindering the voter registration process.

“As a province, we feel that there is need for an extension of the blitz or another phase because we have areas like Mberengwa, Gokwe North and South where numbers are quite depressed,” said Eng Ncube.

“The statistics that we have show that the number is still far below even the number of our own registered party members. We have recommended that ZEC extend the BVR blitz and target those areas. The issuing of IDs was lagging behind and at the end of the day most people, particularly in rural areas failed top register to vote.”

Eng Ncube said Zanu-PF was still confident of surpassing the targeted 800 000 registered voters in the province, which the revolutionary party intends to mobilise.