Slow registration of voters at registration centres in the urban areas had frustrated the efforts of potential voters to participate in coming elections, said committee chairman Paul Madzore.
New voters in some remote areas such as Chipinge waited 14-30 days before their finger print forms, needed for accessing national identification documents, were returned from forensic in Harare.
They cannot register as voters without approved fingerprints. Given the limited registration period, most first time voters without identification documents would be disenfranchised.
At other centres such as Besa Primary in Seke area, identification documents for new voters are yet to be received since June 10 and registration teams have since moved base. Madzore and his committee have compiled a document on their disturbing findings.
“Though I am not in a position to pre-empt our findings, I personally feel someone is deliberately frustrating the registration process in order to rig the election before it starts,” Madzore told The Zimbabwean.
He said the registration exercise was conducted in breach of the constitution, as eligible voters were not accorded the constitutional 30 days to register. “Imagine the elderly having to follow registration teams to other wards where the queues would be long and the process moving at a snail’s pace,” he said.
The Combined Harare Residents Association recently expressed concern at huge numbers of eligible voters who failed to register at mobile registration centres around Harare. In Tafara and Mabvuku the centre closed business at the end of the two or three day registration period, leaving long queues of people unattended.
“The elderly residents who were hoping to cross-check their names on the voters’ roll or assist their minors get registration certificates, were left hopeless,” reads part of the CHRA report.
Post published in: News