Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairman George Chiweshe told election observers and journalists that the voters’ register contained names of dead people but said that was unavoidable given that it was almost impossible to correct the roll each time there was a death. He said: My understanding is that there is never going to be any perfect voter’s roll but I maintain that it’s credible and a few weeks ago registered about 300 000 new voters in just two weeks. It’s in shambles but I maintain that it is a credible roll. We have six million entries in the voters’ roll and it can never catch up with the deaths that are occurring in the country, so it can never be perfect. While it is true the roll cannot be amended each time there was death, the voters’ roll prepared by Chiweshe’s commission however also contains names of people who died several years ago and should have been long removed from the register. For example, the late Desmond William Lardner-Burke who was minister of law and order in the white supremacist government of Ian Smith is listed as a voter in the Mt Pleasant constituency in Harare. Lardner-Burke was born in 1908 and died many years ago in South Africa. Also on the roll is Tichaona Chiminya, a former aide of main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party leader Morgan Tsvangirai who was murdered by state agents in the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary elections. The opposition has expressed fears that the tens of thousands of ghost voters registered will make it easier to manipulate the elections. However, Registrar General, Tobaiwa Mudede, whose office registers voters, rejected the fears of ghost voters rising on election day.We have travelled around the world but never came across a perfect voters roll. We have been told of ghost voters but have never seen a ghost coming to vote, he said. The ZEC, which said it would be using indelible ink to ensure people vote only once, said the three million extra ballots are only for emergency purposes and would not be used to stuff ballot boxes as feared by the opposition. Chiweshe, whose commission runs the election and has to ensure they are free and fair, declined to comment on threatsmade by security forces commanders earlier on Friday that they would crush any show of dissent after elections. I am not aware of such statements but if they have said so maybe they have their own reasons and they are obliged by the law to do so, said Chiweshe. Chiweshe said votes would be counted at polling stations and results will be displayed at the voting stations. The figures will also be sent to constituency collation centres where they will be collated and winners in the Senate and House of Assembly elections will be declared. Votes for the presidential election would also be counted at polling stations and results displayed at the stations. The same figures will then be filed to a national collation centre in Harare where the chief elections officer will declare the winner. In addition, while senate and House of Assembly winners are declared in constituencies the national collation centre would also make formal announcements of the winners in these two elections.
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