admin
Harare Bureau
THE MDC-T collected hard copies of the voters’ roll from the Registrar General’s Office in Harare at 4pm on election day, Registrar General Mr Tobaiwa Mudede revealed yesterday. “The MDC-T sent people at 4pm on July 31 to collect the voters’ roll. I said to myself the idea of coming at 4pm was to disable me to say I was unable to issue the voters roll,” Mr Mudede said.
He said his officers had to work after hours as, despite coming late, the MDC-T demanded 1 958 copies of the voters’ roll.
“I told my officers that you are not going home. They put everything in the truck. I was sitting in my office to make sure they collected the voters’ roll. Is that not drama? Why coming at 4pm?” Mr Mudede said.
He said the MDC-T only collected the voters’ roll after losing its bid to have soft copies of the voters’ roll at the High Court where it had dragged the Registrar General.
All along the MDC-T had refused to collect hard copies of the voters’ roll from the RG’s office despite its availability free of charge.
“The MDC-T did not want hard copies and they are the ones that took us to court. After the court ruling they sent their people at around 4pm. We had to comply with the High Court order so we gave them 1 958 copies. They collected for the whole country. They said they wanted the national voters’, roll,” he said.
Mr Tsvangirai has been crying foul over the voters’ roll which he claims was manipulated in favour of Zanu-PF.
But yesterday Mr Mudede denied the claim saying bad losers point fingers at everyone.
“There is nothing like that. The voters’ roll was not manipulated at all. I have been running elections in this country for a long time before the coming of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. Why was I not accused of manipulation? All over the world when people lose they point fingers.
“This is a different industry where a lot has to be said or manufactured. If they win, they do not talk, if they lose they talk,” he said.
Mr Mudede said he was unfazed with rigging allegations.
“I am not even worried about it. I know what this game means,” he said.
Mr Mudede dismissed claims that a shadowy company from Israel helped his office to manipulate the voters’ roll.
“The Registrar General is in total control of the voters’ roll. We do not want to waste time discussing that company; I am in total control of the situation. Come and I will show you,” he said.
He said the media was free to visit his office to acquaint themselves with systems at the Registrar General.
Mr Mudede said Sadc and the AU teams that observed the elections visited his office and were satisfied with the state of things there.
He said a human rights affiliated non-governmental organisation had its officials arrested recently for carrying out parallel voter registration saying these were the people that were manipulating the roll, not the RG’s Office.
Mr Mudede said even people who do not know the meaning of rigging were at the forefront claiming the polls were manipulated.
Online Reporter