Voter registration doubles

Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Reporter
THE number of eligible voters who registered for the first time during the second phase of Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) mobile biometric voter registration (BVR) blitz increased by 100 percent compared with those who registered in the first phase.

The second phase of the voter registration blitz, which ran from April 11 to April 30, saw a total of 109 405 people registering to vote in next year’s harmonised elections. Out of those, 59 904 are males while 49 501 are females.
Zec also revealed that it processed over 50 000 applications for voter transfers during the 20-day exercise.

Bulawayo and the two Matabeleland provinces recorded a total number of 21 449. Matabeleland North recorded the least number countrywide with 4 079 registrants.

Bulawayo had 12 377 people who registered to vote while Matabeleland South recorded 4 993 more registered voters.

Harare has the highest number of 36 800 registrants followed by Bulawayo. In Masvingo Province a total of 10 572 people registered with Mashonaland East recording 9 791 followed by Manicaland with 8 668.

Mashonaland West had 8 566 people with Midlands having recorded 7 682. A total of 5 877 people registered to vote in Mashonaland Central.

The voter registration exercise coincided with the ongoing issuance of identity documents to enable people to register to vote.

In the first phase of the mobile BVR, which took place from February 1 to February 28, Bulawayo recorded 6 000 new voters and the number doubled in the second phase.

In an interview yesterday, Zec spokesperson, Mr Jasper Mangwana, attributed the huge turnout to the ongoing Civil Registry’s mobile national documents registration blitz exercise and voter registration education.

“The huge numbers we have received during this phase can be attributed to the confidence and credibility that Zimbabweans are showing in the Commission,” he said.

“In this second voter registration phase that was conducted in just 20 days, we received nearly 110 000 new voter registrants.

“During the first phase conducted for 28 days, we only had about 49 000 applications and this time the numbers have doubled. We give credit to the office of the Registrar General for handling the issue of national identity documents with professionalism to enable people to register to vote.”

He said Zec will continue engaging stakeholders until the country holds the next harmonised elections while the final data will be available after a de-duplication process of the information is conducted.

According to Zec, some Civic Society Organisations (CSOs) that were mobilising people to register to vote, did a disservice to the process as they caused double registration.

“We are going to embark on a data cleaning exercise in which we will remove all duplicated applications. This de-duplication exercise will provide final data to the people,” said Mr Mangwana.

“Remember we had CSOs that were involved in this drive but in some cases ended up having double voter registrants.”

It has been previously reported that Matabeleland region has the least number of registered voters countrywide, a development that could eventually result in the loss of constituencies ahead of the 2023 harmonised elections if the trend doesn’t change.

The region, which is least represented in Parliament, has 38 parliamentary seats out of 210 constituencies. Bulawayo has 12, Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North each have 13.

The remainder of the seats are spread across the seven other provinces outside the Matabeleland region. The outcome of the delimitation exercise in August this year will determine the size of constituencies.

Delimitation, which is carried out after a population census and is provided for in Sections 160 and 161 of the Constitution, refers to the division of the country into constituencies and wards for the purposes of elections and involves coming up with a minimum threshold of registered voters in each of the country’s 210 National Assembly constituencies.

The electoral management body established 2 713 voter registration centres and employed 1 885 people to conduct voter registration education and assist the public as they registered to vote ahead of next year’s harmonised elections.

Voter education teams were also deployed around the country, while Zec held several campaigns on various media platforms, urging the country to register to vote.

In a statement, Zec chief elections officer Mr Utoile Silaigwana said their offices in 63 districts and 10 provinces will remain open during the normal working hours for continuous voter registration in terms of section 17A of the Electoral Act. — @mashnets