MORE THAN one million people inspected the voters’ roll during the just-ended inspection period with many others having checked their registration status virtually as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is now working on the final voters’ roll, correcting errors found during the inspection.
Last week Zec conducted the inspection countrywide to clean as well as fix errors and irregularities on the voters’ roll.
A total of 529 264 men and 648 062 women participated in the physical inspection at more than 11 000 inspection centres that were opened countrywide to enable voters, who registered on or before April 28, to check their registration details. In addition a large number checked the roll virtually.
The electoral management body is now addressing queries raised by people about how their registration information had been recorded.
Some members of the public reported that their names were missing from the voters’ roll while others said their names had in fact been struck off completely.
Zec’s vice-chairperson Ambassador Rodney Kiwa said they were now making the necessary corrections and working on the final voters’ roll to pave way for candidate nominations.
“We are working on the final voters roll to enable candidate nomination for the August 23 harmonised elections.
“In this regard we are making all the corrections brought to our attention during the inspection.
Amb Kiwa dismissed allegations that had been made earlier by opposition political parties that the inconsistencies had been targeted at them. He said that the inspection exercise had been conducted to identify and address the anomalies.
The opposition, he added, had been malicious to make such allegations as Zec was not affiliated with any political party.
“The rationale for the voters roll inspection is to ensure every registrant is accurately captured on the roll and all corrections made.
“To suggest that members of a particular political party are targeted for exclusion is not only mischievous and preposterous as we are fully independent of any political party influence and in fact when registering voters we do not seek their political alignment. It would be illegal and unethical,” said Amb Kiwa.
On Wednesday last week, President Mnangagwa proclaimed August 23, 2023, as the day on which harmonised elections will be held and fixed June 21, 2023, as the day on which the Nomination Court will sit to consider and accept candidates for Presidential, Parliamentary, and local authority elections.
The Nomination Court will sit at the High Court to consider Presidential candidates while it will sit at all the 10 provincial capitals for Parliamentary candidates.
The President has also set 2 October 2023 as the day for the run-off election, should there be no outright winner in the presidential election as contemplated by the Constitution.
The Nomination Court will sit at all council offices across the country to consider candidates for local authority elections. Chronicle
