Inconsistencies in voters’ roll

RAU’s report shows huge apathy from the country’s youth with only eight percent of the 18 to 19 age group appearing on the roll.

According to the research unit, there are nearly 2,000,000 potential voters aged under 30 who are unregistered. There are well over 1,000,000 people on the roll who are either deceased or departed. 78 constituencies have more registered voters than inhabitants.

“These statistics are of importance to all those concerned to ensure that the elections are conducted freely and fairly,” RAU said.

Forty constituencies deviate from the average number of voters per constituency by more than the permitted 20 percent.

“Such statistics suggest that the gap between the ideal and the actual impinges upon the integrity of Zimbabwe’s electoral process,” RAU said. RAU said it was in the process of preparing a full report on the state of the voters’ roll as it was as on June 1, 2013 but with elections so close found it prudent to release the key statistics on which the report will be based. “The number of registered voters exceeds the population of Zimbabwe, in all age bands of 30 and above, by a considerable margin. This is most notable in the 40 – 44 age group (162 percent) and the 80+ age group (219 percent).

“In the former, some of the over-registration may be explained by people who are registered as voters, but were absent from the country during the census count, that is, are part of Zimbabwe’s diaspora,” RAU said. RAU said the wide margin in the over 80 category was most probably due to a large number of deceased persons whose names still appeared on the voters’ roll.

“In numerical terms the “over-registration” of people aged 30+ against the actual population is 1,146,760,” RAU said.

According to the findings, the distribution of voters on the June 2013 roll is such that 23 constituencies exceed the permissible maximum and 17 are below the permissible minimum.

“Mbare has a voter population 154 percent greater than the mean (43,169 voters) and Chipinge East has a voter population of only 46 percent of the mean (12,940 voters).

RAU said the voters’ roll showed no gender bias when considered as a whole. “The picture may, however, change when gender is considered across each age band, though this analysis has yet to be undertaken.

“The voters’ roll can thus never meet the ideal indicated at the outset. However, the gap between the ideal and the actual should be kept within reasonable limits, if the electoral process is to be deemed fair and credible,” RAU said.