New voter registration exercise in pipeline

voter registration exercise after observing that the current one that ends on Sunday was slow and would not capture all those interested in voting in the harmonised elections expected before June 29.

Speaking after touring four mobile voter registration centres in Harare and Chitungwiza yesterday, Zec chairperson Justice Rita Makarau said the electoral body would meet on Friday to come up with modalities for the new exercise.

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A new 30-day voter registration is provided for under the Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 20 which should commence when the proposed Constitution takes effect.

“I am disheartened at the nature of the whole exercise,” said Justice Makarau. “The queues are long and are not being served effectively. This means we need to re-organise and re-strategise. We may need to reconsider. We may need a new voter registration exercise.

“The entire system is not coping. Voter education is not adequate. The commissioners will meet on Friday to come up with one position. We need to agree as the commissioners.”

Justice Makarau said she hoped the new exercise would be well funded and well coordinated.

Justice Makarau, who was accompanied by her deputy Mrs Joyce Kazembe during the tour, observed long queues and spoke to people who complained about the “stringent” requirements to register as voters.

The people were not happy with the slow pace of registration.
Some of the people were having to follow the mobile registration teams to other centres after failing to register, while at some centres officials reported that they were being blocked by the people from leaving the venues after close of business.

Justice Makarau said the two voter educators deployed per district to educate the people on the voter registration exercise were not enough.
She said only US$500 000 had been released to Zec for voter education and registration monitoring, which was not enough.

“We need funding because we need to be in every ward,” she said. “We are being hampered from carrying out a legal mandate.”
Justice Makarau said those who wanted to register were being frustrated as they were being made to wait in queues for too long.

She said while Zec had not set a target for the number of people to be registered, statistics based on the constitutional referendum last month show that over a million new voters needed to be registered.

Justice Makarau said in the 2008 harmonised elections, 2 million people voted and the number had increased to 3 million who cast their votes in the referendum.

At least 40 000 people have registered during the mobile voter registration which started on April 29.
During Justice Makarau’s tour at Mt Pleasant Hall, Mr Pedzisai Shava complained that he was failing to get an identity card to enable him to register.

Long queues were observed at Kambuzuma Secondary School where at least 500 people were registering to vote per day.
In Chitungwiza, people complained that those without long birth certificates were being referred to the Registrar General’s Office in Harare to process them.

Documents required to register as voters include proof of residence, which can be in the form of utility bills in the name of the person registering or letter from a landlord, hospital card and national identity card.

In Chinhoyi, Zanu-PF provincial chairperson for Mashonaland West Cde John Mafa said the mobile voter registration had failed to capture everyone willing to register.

He said the process was not decentralised enough to reach all people, especially in remote areas.
“We are going to make recommendations for the extension of the mobile voter registration process so that as many people as possible are assisted,” he said.

Prospective voters in Chinhoyi said they were being forced to spend long periods in queues, while others were sleeping at the district registration offices waiting for their turn.

The mobile voter registration officers were reportedly handling only 100 applications per day which sometimes overlapped into the next day.
Hurungwe North MP Cde Peter Chanetsa said mobile registration teams should be increased.

“The distances that people have to walk to get to the mobile teams are too long because they are using a ward system which leaves people getting the information late, while others have to travel more than 20 kilometres to get to a mobile unit,” he said.