adminMudede dismissed as baseless claims by the MDC-T that his office planned to rig elections, saying the MDC-T was free to observe their systems.
“Those who are worried on what we do are free to come and see our systems,” he said. “It is not proper for us to discuss those issues in newspapers,” Mr Mudede said.
His comments come in the wake of claims by MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai that election rigging was underway and was being masterminded by an Israeli company called Nikuv International Projects.
Mr Mudede said he was informed that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai raised the issue of alleged election rigging during a meeting with ZEC officials on Monday saying Mr Tsvangirai’s allegations had no basis.
Ironically the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs that was chaired by former MDC-T legislator for Glen View Mr Paul Madzore recently went on a nationwide tour to assess the voter registration exercise and expressed satisfaction with the process and progress made.
African Union and Sadc observers, Mr Mudede said, had expressed satisfaction with the transparency of their systems. Jomic and several Government officials have also inspected operations at the offices.
To this end, the RG revealed that the process had gone on so well that the number of people on the voters’ roll had increased from around five million to more than six million since mandatory voter registration began with the publication of the new Constitution on May 22.
As of June 30, Mr Tobaiwa Mudede said, at least 476 313 new voters were registered, while 142 624 voters had transferred from their initial voting centres.
He said 595 746 people had inspected the voters’ roll, with 337 030 others acquiring national identification cards.
“As at June 30 2013, the total voter population recorded stands at 6 082 302,” said Mr Mudede.
He said during the same period, his office processed 94 460 birth certificates and 11 596 death certificates countrywide.
Mr Mudede dismissed claims by some politicians and sections of the private media that the voter registration exercise was slow.
He said in some instances officials from his office went out of their way to work after hours.
“People are not slow,” said Mr Mudede. “They are examining a variety of things. Our people are working hard and in some cases they have gone as far as 10pm.
“Reports that we are registering 100 people at some centres are not true. There has been a lot of registration and the average number of people we are recording is 400 per day.”
Mr Mudede urged all who want to register as voters to take advantage of the mandatory mobile voter registration which is ending on Tuesday next week.
He said after the closure of the mobile voter registration, they would continue to register people at the district level and other sub offices.
Those who would come after the declaration of the closure of the mandatory voter registration would not be eligible to vote in the harmonised elections slated for July 31.
Mr Mudede said his office treated people equally when discharging its duties.
“In terms of Section of 35 (2) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, all Zimbabwean citizens are equal before the law and subject to equal treatment regardless of gender when they turn up for our services,” said Mr Mudede.
He said there were some touts who were masquerading as human rights lawyers visiting his offices purporting to be assisting the elderly to acquire documents.
Online Reporter