ZEC waives voter registration requirements

vote as of yesterday, up from 25 000 last week.
ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau told political parties yesterday that those without documents to prove their residence would fill in an affidavit form available at registration centres as part of measures agreed upon to address concerns raised by the parties and stakeholders.

“ZEC agreed with you in this regard and as a consequence added the use of an affidavit as an additional document to prove residence.
“The affidavit is the fall-back position for all applicants and, therefore, no one citizen should be turned away for want of documentation. The affidavit will be gazetted soon, it will form part of the law of Zimbabwe.”

Justice Makarau said the affidavit form was agreed upon by ZEC and the Registrar-General of Voters Mr Tobaiwa Mudede, who attended yesterday’s meeting.

In the meeting, political parties castigated Finance Minister Tendai Biti for not adequately funding the electoral commission. This was after Justice Makarau said although the process had been largely underfunded, it had been worthwhile.

MDC-T organising secretary Mr Nelson Chamisa complained about “skewed” distribution of voter registration centres.
He said some provinces had more centres than others and suggested the use of traditional polling stations as voter registration centres.
Zanu-PF secretary for security Cde Sydney Sekeramayi said it was interesting to note that the MDC-T now wanted polling stations to be used as voter registration centres, a suggestion it had initially spurned.

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“It had been said let voter registration be done at polling stations and they had said no, people would be intimidated, but they now want the same thing they had rejected, they are now wiser,” he said.

Political parties complained that the voter registration period, April 29 to May 19, was too short.
Others complained that staff in the RG’s Office frustrated aspiring voters by demanding certain issues that ZEC had not mentioned.
Justice Makarau said ZEC would meet to review the effect of the process and establish if there was need to extend it.

ZEC, she said, envisaged another 30-day registration period provided for by Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 20 which should commence when the proposed Constitution takes effect. The 30-day period, she said, should cover up for time lost during the initial stage of the current voter registration.

“We do not have information that Section 6 (3) of the draft Constitution has been repealed, so we still have additional 30-day voter registration period provided for by the Draft Constitution,” she said

Turning to people who have turned up to register as voters, Justice Makarau said the figure rose to 36 785 from 24 940 within the last week, those that have transferred rose to 13 345 from 8 839, while those who have taken national identity documents rose to 55 654 from 42 882.