ZEC expresses satisfaction with voter registration
By William Milasi
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has expressed satisfaction with the ongoing voter registration exercise.
Kwekwe District Elections Officer Assan Mkwananzi said the voter registration exercise is ongoing and it is going on well.
“Registration is a continuous activity. Obviously the numbers will increase as the exercise will be ongoing. We are satisfied with the numbers. As you are aware the voters roll was closed on the 30th of May 2022 to pave way for the purposes of delimitation. After that registration continued and we and people have been coming register to vote,” he said.
Mkwananzi however, expressed concern in as far as rural voters are concerned.
“We have seen people from both the rural and urban areas coming out to register. However, we have realised that people in the rural areas are greatly disadvantaged in terms of accessing voter registration centres mainly because of distance issues. They incur heavy expenses when they are to access voter registration centres,” he said.
The Zimbabwe Election Advocacy Trust (ZEAT) Director Igantiuos Sadziwa said ZEC must decentralise its voter registration centres.
“Section 8 of the Electoral Act is very clear that the registration centres must be decentralised. So that voter registration becomes easy for first time voters but we haven’t seen that happening. Out of 210 constituencies we have 63 voter registration centres nationally. A situation which will work in favour of first time voters,” he said.
