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chairperson Justice Rita Makarau (RM) to talk about this and other issues related to elections.
SFM: You are the lady of the moment, the lady in the hot seat, with the world watching every decision and every move. How have you been coping?
RM: I would say so far so good. While I do not underestimate the responsibility that attaches to the office that I occupy I would say it has been made quite easy for me to carry my responsibilities because I have nine other commissioners, men and women that I work with me. I get tremendous support from them not to mention the support I get from the ZEC staff as well. I am getting tremendous support.
SFM: Justice Makarau coming to the election on July 31 when is voter education going to start and what does that process entail?
RM: Voter education for the harmonised elections has already started. Maybe I need to take you back and say we had the voter registration exercise that commenced on June 9 and ended on July 8 that was accompanied with voter education that started a week before the registration began.
We have entered into the second phase of the voter education on the harmonised elections themselves and voter educators are on the ground already teaching the electorate on who are the candidates, how to vote and how many persons they are going to vote for in this election. So they are already on the ground.
SFM: In previous elections we have seen non-governmental organisations in the electoral process and since there is a lot of mistrust among many Zimbabwe regarding the goals of these entities. How objective are these NGOs going to be and what parameters have you set as they engage in voter education and other functions prior to the elections?
RM: The NGOs which are taking voter education have actually been vetted by the ZEC. We did flight an advert asking for those who were interested to apply with us. Quite a number applied.
They were taken through a training session by ZEC where they were told what is expected of them and after that session they were given materials, ZEC material, which they were told to go and use in the voter education exercise. But we are not going to leave them in the field on their own.
We have tasked our provincial voter educators in the provinces actually to attend when these NGOs are conducting their voter education exercises to ensure that they stick to the materials that they were given to use in the exercise.
SFM: There has been an increase in the number of polling stations. Firstly what is the justification for this? Does ZEC have the necessary manpower and resources to cope with these stations?
RM: Before I answer your question I just want to remind the public that in 2008 we had 9111 polling stations, this was increased during the referendum elections to 9449 polling stations and in the coming election provisionally we are setting out to establish 9670 polling stations.
The increase is that we want to offer a better service to the voting populace and the other reason is that we have realised the population of registered voters has increased since 2008.
It has moved from 5,5 million and we are now looking in excess of 6 million people to serve, so we are anticipating a huge turnout of voters at the elections if we are to go by what happened in the referendum. This is why we have increased the number of polling stations. The second question was, does ZEC have the manpower. Yes we have the manpower. Remember we recruit from the Public Service Commission, from parastatals and local authorities throughout the country. So the manpower is definitely guaranteed.
SFM: In the previous elections we have seen an upsurge in the number of spoiled ballots. What measures have you taken or do you have modules to ensure that prospective voters know what to do when they turn up at the polling booth?
RM: Yes. We have manuals that have been handed out to our voter educators and in the manuals it actually tells them how to teach the people how to vote. The manuals also contain a specimen ballot paper and persons are shown the ballot paper and shown how to put a mark against the candidate of your choice on the ballot paper.
This time we are hoping to have less spoiled papers than before because our voter educators have been on the ground for quite a long time they have been there for the past week and will be there until polling day and we anticipate that between now and then they would have adequately educated the voters on how to cast their vote.
SFM: Turning to mobile voter registration, the 30day period that was activated by the publication of the Constitution, and that ended a few days ago, are you happy with the result of the exercise and how many new voters were added onto the voters’ roll?
RM: We are fairly happy with the exercise, it resulted in the voter population shooting up to an excess of six million voters, we are still compiling figures, they are still coming in from the registrar’s office. He also have to wait for figures to come in from around the country’s provinces but at last count the population was standing at 6,1 million voters. We have a new 500 000 people on the voters roll.
SFM: There have been concerns from different quarters that perhaps thousands of people who wish to participate in this election were denied the right to do so because voter registration was closed before they could register their names. What is your comment?
RM: the exercise managed to capture as many people as possible. The 30 -day voter registration was actually the second phase. We had an initial phase that ran between April and May, some people managed to register during that time and I would want to believe that all those who had their papers ready managed to register.
As you know voter registration is an ongoing exercise and you can never complete it. As we speak there are people who also want to register. The important thing to know is that the voters’ roll has to close for a certain period to allow for an election and we have to have a date when it closes, which happens to be yesterday unfortunately.
SFM: How many civil servants are expected to cast their votes on Saturday in the special voting?
RM: The special voting is starting on Sunday the 14th and it is set for two days, Sunday and Monday we are still working on the number of civil servants who will take part, but as ZEC we sent out 120 000 ballot papers to members of the disciplined forces who happen to be the ZRP, ZNA and ZPS. We also sent out forms to ZEC officials who will be on duty during polling day and out of that 120 000 forms we have received back 87 000 forms which have been filled. Not all of the applicants have been successful some have been rejected but I will be able to give final figures on that once the process has been completed
SFM: Where will the votes from special ballot be kept and when is the counting going to take place?
RM: the ballots will be in the custody of the chief elections officer after they are cast and will be transported from polling stations to his office in tamperproof envelopes.
The election agents who will be present during the casting of the ballots can append their signatures to the seal. The chief elections officer is the one who will open the ballots on a date that he will make public and the same election agents will have to be present to see the seals being broken. They have the right to remain in the collation centres when the ballots are being counted and are being sorted out and then they will be sent to provincial election officers where they shall be kept until the polling day. On the polling day they shall be counted together with other ordinary votes. All counting will take place after the 31st of July.
SFM: how many applications did you receive?
RM: So far we have received just above 200 but the closing date is tomorrow and we are hoping that by tomorrow we would have received the remaining applications.
SFM: Alright and another salient point that has emerged as we head towards the July 31 elections is for the authorities to embrace technology and during the voter registration exercise they were various platforms where people would venture to check whether their names where on the voters roll and so on has ZEC and the Registrar General of Voters gone on that direction, and what is hindering the country from going in that direction as well?
RM: We have not as ZEC launched a website where people can search their names on website whether they are registered or not, but it is a direction we are moving to but for this election we have not mobilised enough to be able to launch a website where people can search their names but like I said we are moving in that direction and the next election we can actually have E-voting.
SFM: But we do have websites what is your comment are they affiliated to ZEC and the Registrar General of Voters?
RM: No they are not affiliated to ZEC. I am not aware they are affiliated to the office of the Registrar General of Voters but we are aware there are those websites.
And investigations are underway as to who is actually hosting that website, how it was set it up and whether they are breaching any law by hosting that website but these persons are not affiliated to us.
Online Reporter