Voter registration scandal hits Mudede

According to documentary evidence availed to the MDC and presented to journalists by the party’s National spokesperson, Douglas Mwonzora, urban constituency voters’ rolls are being stuffed with mysterious names.

Mudede is reportedly compiling two separate voters’ rolls to disenfranchise suspected Zanu (PF) rivals in both urban and rural areas.

In some cases, steep rises have been recorded in certain constituencies, raising suspicion that the rolls are being tampered with.

Mwonzora, at a press conference in the capital today, said two conflicting voters’ rolls showed that, in Harare North’s Ward 42 some 5,196 were on the 94 page voters roll by on 15 April 2013.

However, two days later, the voters’ roll had recorded a total 17,068 voters with the volume having grown to 310 pages. This suggested 11,871 people had registered as voters in two days.

The same pattern of election rigging by way of stuffing the voters roll with ghost voters and people from outside constituencies was exposed in Harare North’s Ward 18 where on 17 April 2013 the voters roll had 8, 305 registered voters.

The figure rose to 10,076 two days later, suggesting that some 1,771 people had registered within 48 hours.

Mwonzora told journalists that the trends they had unearthed showed that attempts were underway to rig the election expected later this year.

“The scandal is one issue SADC should be seized with as it exposes Mudede and Zanu (PF)’s unholy alliance to rig the coming election,” said Mwonzora.

He added that his party would take the issue up with SADC, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the Registrar General’s office.

He accused Mudede of playing games voters, saying his party would demand transparent voter verification.

Mwonzora said Mudede’s office was deliberately registering people with some spelling mistakes on the names or placed voters in the wrong constituencies so as to cause confusion and prevent them from voting.

The RG’s office has been widely criticised for defying cabinet instruction to facilitate replacement of lost identification particulars without charging a fee, in addition to frustrating mobile voter registration.

The office is also reportedly illegally charging aliens $40 as a voter registration fee.