Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Online Reporter
UMGUZA constituency has lost five wards to Tsholotsho South constituency according to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s final delimitation report which will demarcate constituency and ward boundaries in the 2023 harmonised elections.
President Mnangagwa gazetted the report on Monday to set the tone for the proclamation of the election dates.
According to the report, Wards 12, 14, 16, 17 and 18 are now under Tsholotsho South constituency which has a total of 24 328 registered voters while Umguza has 28 624 registered voters as of the close of the voters’ registration exercise on May 30 last year.
Commenting on Tsholotsho South constituency, the elections body said;
“The Constituency has a total of 24 328 registered voters. It comprises wards: 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 of Tsholotsho Rural District Council and wards: 12, 14, 16, 17, and 18 of Umguza Rural District Council.”
Umguza wards that have migrated to Tsholotsho South have a combined total of 9 017 registered voters.
The Constitution in s160(1) stipulates that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must divide Zimbabwe into 210 constituencies for the purposes of electing Members of Parliament. To achieve this, the total number of registered voters in the whole country was divided by 210 constituencies and this yielded a national average of 27 640 registered voters per constituency.
The figure obtained satisfies s161(3) of the Constitution which states that “The boundaries of constituencies must be such that, so far as possible, at the time of delimitation equal numbers of voters are registered in each constituency within Zimbabwe”.
“From a practical point, it is not possible to have an equal number of registered voters in each constituency since the population is not uniformly distributed across the country due to factors such as physical factors, land use, and migration. The Constitution recognises the impracticability of having an equal number of voters in each constituency by allowing the Commission to depart from this requirement within a stipulated margin. In this case, the Constitution in s161(6) stipulates that …. “no constituency may have more than 20% more or fewer registered voters than other such constituencies,” reads the Zec report.
@skhumoyo2000.
Online Reporter