Zec begins transporting ballot papers to provinces

Pamela Shumba, Chronicle Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has started moving ballot papers to the country’s provinces as preparations for the harmonised elections gather momentum. In an interview yesterday, Zec deputy chairperson Mrs Joyce Kazembe said preparations for the polls were going on well with the training of polling officers scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
The elections would be held on Wednesday next week.

“Everything is going on well. As I speak to you we are transporting ballot papers to Bulawayo, Midlands, Matabeleland North and South provinces. Tomorrow the ballot papers will be transported to Masvingo and Manicaland provinces while the rest of the provinces will receive them on 25 July. This process is done under tight security,” said Mrs Kazembe.

“Training of wards elections officers and presiding officers is going on in every province and will be completed tomorrow (today). The training of polling officers will be conducted on Friday and Saturday in all the provinces.”

Mrs Kazembe said the electoral body was also running voter education programmes for members of the public in all the provinces.
She said the electoral body would deploy its officers to the polling stations between three or four days before the elections.

“Deployment of polling officers will be done between three or four days before the election date, depending on how far their polling stations are. Everything and everyone should be at their polling stations at least by 29 July. Some of the electoral material will be taken to the stations by the officers. Right now we are transporting the electoral material to the provinces as it comes.

“The polling officers are drawn from the Public Service Commission, parastatals, local authorities and the Health Services Board in terms of the Electoral Act [Chapter 2:13]. Each polling station will have 10 polling officers,” said Mrs Kazembe.

She said the electoral body had also authorised 18 000 local observers to observe the elections, with 7 500 having been accredited.
“A total of 18 000 observers have been authorised by Zec to observe the elections and 7 500 have been accredited. We are expecting to accredit between 1 200 and 1 500 international observers.

“I would like to encourage all observers to go for accreditation early to avoid a last minute rush as this creates pressure on our teams in the provinces,” she said.

At least 95 percent of Zimbabwe’s eligible voters are expected to cast their ballots on Wednesday, with the country ranked third out of 10 Sadc countries that held elections since 2009 in terms of registered voters against eligible voters.

According to statistics released by Zec, there are 6 740 925 eligible voters in the country.
On Monday Registrar-General of voters , Mr Tobaiwa Mudede said after the national mobile registration closed there were more than 6, 4 million registered voters.