Elections are expected to be held this year but ZEC has failed to kick start the official voter registration due to lack of finance. The electoral board had set January 3 as the official commencement of the voter registration exercise.
Acting ZEC Chairperson, Joyce Kazembe, told journalists last week that the board needed $8 million for voter education, inspection of the voters’ roll and other administrative requirements.
Build confidence
In an exclusive interview with The Zimbabwean, Chimhini castigated the commission for putting the issue of resources ahead of everything else, saying that ZEC should be dealing with issues that did not need millions of dollars.
“There is so much that the commission can do in terms of building confidence amongst the voters before conducting the mobile voter’s registration. Why don’t they give us schedules beforehand explaining how they are going to conduct the mobile registration, the order of places they will visit and time and dates of when they will be coming?” said Chimhini.
He said the ZEC was supposed to ensure their integrity was safeguarded which would motivate people to participate in the coming election.
“Right now there are some disputable people on the ZEC board and people can only trust them, if they start indicating that they are different from the previous board. At the moment the board has done nothing to show us that they are serious,” he added. Chimhini said Zimbabweans were worried about the state of the current voters’ roll which was reported to be riddled with dead voters, ghost voters and double entries.
Voters’ roll shambles
“As a voter, when I hear that there is going to be mobile registration, I envision my name being added to a contaminated list that is not authentic,” he said.
He added that the electoral board needed to be in touch with the people and stakeholders for the sake of transparency.
“In Kenya and Ghana, the commissions responsible for elections communicated any developments regarding the holding of elections. They would update the electorate on the structure of the voters’ roll and it would be publicised. This is yet to be done by ZEC,” he added. “ZEC remains heavily dependent on the executive which comprises of politicians who have an interest in the election.”
Post published in: News