It’s one million and counting

22 Oct, 2017 - 00:10 0 Views
It’s one million  and counting

The Sunday Mail

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has registered nearly one million people since the start of Biometric Voter Registration in September.

This comes as Zanu-PF is also educating its members on the voting system that will be used in the 2018 harmonised elections.

According to information from ZEC, 879 315 people had registered as of October 20 under phase one of the countrywide exercise.

About 20 838 people were turned away for failing to produce requisite documents such as valid national identity cards, according to Zec.

The latest figures show that as at October 17, Mashonaland East had registered the most voters (111 881), followed by Manicaland (109 607), Midlands (92 183) and Masvingo (84 642).

Mashonaland Central captured the details of 82 493 prospective voters, Harare 80 192, Mashonaland West 44 341, Matabeleland South 25 841, Matabeleland North 25 791 and Bulawayo 18 216.

Mashonaland East Provincial Affairs Minister Brigadier-General (Retired) Ambrose Mutinhiri yesterday said: “We are happy with the progress so far in the voter registration process although there are communication problems in some remote areas, for example, poor road networks. If they are solved, more voters will be mobilised.

“The time allocated is also not enough to mobilise people to go and register, but hopefully in the future, things are going to change for the better.

“I am really impressed by the three districts of Mutoko, UMP and Mudzi, and I urge other districts to emulate them by voting in numbers. If we all do like what is being done in these districts, I am sure that the targeted population of voters will be reached.”

At a Zanu-PF district meeting in Beitbridge yesterday, ruling party Politburo member Cde Kembo Mohadi said: “As we approach election time, it is very critical that we have self-introspection as a party and reaffirm the need to strengthen party structures from grassroots level.

“In addition, we must encourage those eligible voters to take advantage of the ongoing voter registration programme.

“The idea is to get a two-thirds majority in Parliament in the forthcoming elections. This will help us to implement people-oriented programmes.”

Cde Mohadi said Zanu-PF had adopted a robust strategy to recruit more members ahead of the harmonised elections, adding that all opposition alliances were nonentities.

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