The applicants do not have to physically visit registration offices. The practice is most pronounced in Uzumba and Mudzi districts – Zanu (PF) strongholds – where party councillors are working with village heads, who have reportedly been given the task of mobilising villagers to register.
Tawanda Chimhini, director of the Election Resource Centre, confirmed receiving reports of the practice by Zanu (PF), which he said was a violation of the electoral law. “The provisions on registering as a voter are very clear. People are supposed to submit themselves in person before a registrar with the necessary documentation that includes proof of residence and a national I.D.” Chimhini said.
MDC-T provincial spokesperson for Mashonaland East, Graham Nyahada, confirmed the development saying it amounted to manipulation of the voter registration process by Zanu (PF) and the RG’s office. The Registrar General, Tobaiwa Mudede, attended last year’s Second All-Stakeholders’ Conference on the constitutional draft as a Zanu (PF) delegate.
“Zanu (PF) has set up voter registration centres in Nhakiwa Growth Point and Mudzi, among others, where their supporters are being told to go and register. On top of that, some Zanu (PF) councillors are moving around villages with a voters’ roll and ticking names of MDC-T supporters on the list. We are afraid that some of our supporters who are already registered will not find their names on the voter’s roll when election time comes. Already we have recorded cases of our supporters who are registered voters but whose names have mysteriously disappeared from the roll,” said Nyahada.
In January, ZimRights boss Okay Machisa was arrested on charges of conducting illegal voter registration and fraud. His arrest followed the incarceration of four ZimRights officials on the same charges.
He said in Uzumba in Ward 14, a Zanu (PF) councillor identified as Sanyika was in possession of the voters’ roll and had set up a voter registration centre at his homestead, while an official at Chipfunde Secondary School in Uzumba District was conducting the registration process on behalf of Zanu (PF) and in Ward 8 the exercise was being done at the home of a party youth leader identified as Louis Chiko.
In Mudzi North, two known Zanu (PF) supporters, identified as Wengai Bobo and Mirisi Paradzai, were driving the process while the local Zanu (PF) MP, Milton Kachepa, was said to be behind the distribution of the roll.
Kachepa denied all knowledge of the setting up of the voter registration centres by Zanu (PF) and distanced himself from the distribution of the voters’ roll, claiming that Provincial Chairman for Mashonaland East, Ray Kauonde, was behind the exercise.
“All the wards in Mashonaland East are doing this (distribution of the voters’ roll) and I understand that this is a genuine exercise. I was told the copies were bought for $15 each,” said Kachepa.
When contacted for comment, Kaukonde said: “Yes it is true. Anyone can go and buy the voters’ roll at the Registrar General’s Office, even the MDC, so there is no reason why they should make noise about it. We bought about 2,229 copies of the voter’s roll which were distributed to all the Wards in Mashonaland East. The allegation that we are conniving with the RG to register our supporters is a sign of fear by the MDC ahead of elections.”
A party youth leader, one Paradzai, confirmed that they were going around collecting names and ID numbers of Zanu (PF) supporters to facilitate their registration for the upcoming elections.
“We are mobilising our supporters to register to vote and after that we write their names and submit them to our seniors, but I am not in a position to tell you where those names will go,” said Paradzai.
Meanwhile, MDC officials report that village heads were refusing to write letters of proof of residence for known MDC-T supporters.
Post published in: News