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Senior Reporter
WITH only four days left before the conclusion of the second voter registration exercise, Bulawayo residents have called on the Registrar General’s Office to increase its staff to ensure no one is left out when the process ends on Tuesday. A visit to one of the registration centres at Mahlathini Primary School in Cowdray Park suburb yesterday afternoon revealed that long queues were still a feature with scores of prospective voters itching to be registered.
Most residents, mainly the youth and women, were waiting to be issued with birth certificates and identity cards with scores of adults jostling to be served first.
Probably tired of standing in the queue others sat on the pavement holding their registration forms waiting for their turn.
In separate interviews, the residents said the registry officials were overwhelmed with work and complained that the process was slow.
“The registration team came here on Monday and since then people have been flooding this place. I have failed to register for the past three days and today I had to wake up early and come here,” said a resident in the queue.
The residents said unless the Government made provisions to beef up staff, many residents would be left out.
“Tomorrow is the last day and the registration team will be moving to cover other areas yet the queue is still long as you can see. Judging by the pace at which the process is moving, many people will fail to register.
“It would be better if the Government makes provision to increase manpower in these teams at least for these remaining days,” said another resident.
Bulawayo United Residents’ Association (Bura) chairman Mr Winos Dube urged ZEC to come up with mechanisms of speeding up the registration process to ensure that all prospective voters participate in the elections on 31 July.
“We want to call upon ZEC to do something to speed up the registration process to ensure that all eligible voters are not left out,” said Mr Dube.
“We do not want a situation where some people are left out of the process because of inefficiency. If possible ZEC should increase its manpower at least for these last days. We also urge residents to take the required documents and go and register in large numbers.”
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (Bupra) coordinator Mr Rodrick Fayayo said the issue has been brought to the attention of his organisation.
“We have received a number of complaints in which residents say the registration process is frustratingly slow. Some people said they have spent up to five hours in the queue,” said Mr Fayayo.
“We are also unhappy with the voter education exercise. ZEC should have accredited civic society organisations to assist its teams in voter education.
“At the moment ZEC teams are not covering all areas and more people are needed to speed up the process. ZEC should increase its manpower.”
Mr Fayayo said the on-going voter education and registration were key processes towards having fair elections.
“If some people are left out of the registration process it means they would not participate in the election. We are also worried about residents who were once regarded as aliens.
“Such residents continue to face challenges when registering. Some of them have told us that they were ordered to go to the provincial registry office to sort out their documentation first,” said Mr Fayayo.
However, on Tuesday the Registrar General Mr Tobaiwa Mudede said the registration process was going on smoothly and noted that the number of people on the voters’ role has increased from around five million to six million since the beginning of mandatory voter registration last month.
Mr Mudede said as of 30 June at least 476 313 new voters were registered while 142 624 voters had been transferred from their initial voting centres.
He said 595 746 people had inspected the voters’ roll with 337 030 others acquiring identity cards.
Mr Mudede said within the same period his office processed 94 460 birth certificates and 11 596 death certificates countrywide.
According to Mr Mudede voter registration would continue after the closure of the process on Tuesday
Online Reporter