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Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has rubbished claims by private media that there are 250 000 ghost voters on the voters roll.
ZEC chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba, in a statement on Thursday said: “The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission would like to dismiss as false recent media reports that there are 250 000 ghost voters on the voters roll.
“In one of the two cases cited by a local daily, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) picked that Chikondowa Varaidzo registered three times giving three different places of residence. In the first entry she registered on 15 December 2017 and was allocated Chirovakamwe A Primary School polling station in Ward 15 of Mutare Municipality.
“On 29 May 2018 she again registered giving proof of residence close to Mutare Junior School polling station in Ward 11. Her third registration was on 31 May 2018 where she was allocated a polling station at Hillside Sports Club in Ward 12 of Mutare Municipality. Her entries recorded on 15 December 2017 and 31 May 2018 have been removed from the final voters roll leaving the 29 May 2018 record only. Her records that were removed from the roll will be on the exclusion list for Chirovakamwe A Primary School polling station and Hillside Sports Club polling station,” she said.
Justice Chigumba said the AFIS system was very reliable.
She also clarified allegations that there was a cited case of double registration.
“In the second case the daily alleged that one person by the name Miria Gondo registered twice at Chikuku Primary School in Bikita and at Boora Primary School also in Bikita in Masvingo.
“Although records on the voters roll show that both entries show the same name and date of birth, the ID numbers have different suffixes. The photographs and fingerprints of the two entries are also different proving that these are two different people who could not be identified by the AFIS technology as one person because their biometrics are different.
“The newspaper has failed to produce the lists of entries amounting to the alleged 250 000 ghost voters hence such allegations must be dismissed with the contempt they deserve,” she said.
She assures that voters’ details were secure following allegations that the commission had leaked people’ details to political parties
Online Reporter