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Herald Reporter
The voters’ role being distributed to candidates is searchable and analysable, but is in a format that cannot be altered or tampered with, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has said, rubbishing opposition claims that it was not searchable simply because it was not a MS Excel document.
ZEC chief elections officer Mr Utloile Silaigwana said yesterday in a statement, that the voters’ roll met the provision of the Electoral Act as it was searchable and analysable. But he noted that the Act “permits the commission to format the voters’ roll to prevent it from being altered or tampered with”. “It is for this reason why ZEC has issued out the voters’ roll in its current format. There is nowhere in the Act where it is stated that the roll should be in Excel or printable formats known to have compromised security features.
“The voters’ roll issued out to candidates has columns for the voter’s surname, forename, ID number, gender, date of birth, voter’s address, polling station, ward, local authority, constituency, district and province as prescribed in Section 20(2) of the Electoral Act.”
Mr Silaigwana said polling station codes have not been included on the voters’ roll because they are an administrative tool used by the commission to map out polling stations during delimitation, hence they are not part of the voters’ roll as alleged.
He said the electorate and other stakeholders should expect to see real names of polling stations and not codes on the voters’ rolls.
“Ordinary voters without access to the electronic voters’ roll are encouraged to dial the USSD Code *265# on their mobile phones to ascertain their registration status and polling station.
“The commission would like to urge all stakeholders with queries on the voters’ roll or any other electoral issue to approach the commission for clarification. They should desist from casting aspersions on the voters’ roll and other electoral processes as this may affect voter turnout and discredit the polls,” said Mr Silaigwana.
Online Reporter