The Sunday Mail
Justice Rita Makarau
Phase One of Biometric Voter Registration was a good beginning. It gave us useful insights into how to prepare for the second phase of registration, perfecting that which we did not do well.
Challenges were experienced, especially in mobilising people to register. There was a mismatch between voter education and the beginning of the blitz. In some instances, we went in to register people before they had been adequately educated. Therefore, we had very low turnouts initially as people were unaware of the nature of the exercise and what was required of them.
We also had logistical challenges, and this validated our strategy.
When Phase One began, some areas were affected by rains and thus became inaccessible. We couldn’t deploy. As I said, it validated our strategy of starting with the difficult-to-reach areas. If we had waited until the rains came (in earnest), we may have not been able to go there to register people.
In addition, there were challenges relating to the infamous proof of residence.
Many Zimbabweans believe the only proof of residence they can tender is an affidavit, and we did not have enough Commissioners of Oaths on the ground to commission those affidavits.
So, quite a large number was turned away.
At the end of Phase One, 30 000 people had been turned away for one reason or another, but mainly because they did not have proof of residence.
That is a high number, and shows that many Zimbabweans don’t have documents that tie them to places they live. I don’t know if that is good or bad. A good number of people are just showing up at voter registration centres with their IDs only, expecting our officers to then commission their affidavits.
Yet, sometimes the Commissioner of Oaths is not there.
That has been a big challenge.
Minor challenges relating to omitted data in our software were also encountered. Some wards or constituencies were found missing when somebody’s name was typed in.
He or she said they belonged to a certain constituency then that constituency could not be found in our alpha listing, which is our list of all constituencies in the country.
That was a technical issue which the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission took back to suppliers, Laxton Group of Companies, who subsequently rectified the matter and updated our alpha listing. As we speak, they have captured most details omitted in the first phase.
I think it was purely human error because the constituencies I’m talking about are mainly in Mutoko North and South.
Details of people in one constituency were being captured as if they were in another constituency. It was just a misposting when we created the alpha listing and that has now been rectified.
When we did the mapping exercise, we did it as a desk exercise. We were relying on people’s knowledge of their areas.
At that time, we didn’t have a budget so we couldn’t go on the ground to verify.
So, it could have been a result of that inadequately funded desk exercise.
Therefore, quality control may have been lacking and we ended up sending incorrect information to Laxton and they just programmed it as we relayed it to them.
After that first example, we called all provincial election officers and told them to look at the programme and identify all possible omitted data. The PEOs did that, and we have since given all information to Laxton to update the software. So far, we have not had any reports regarding omitted data.
We believe we have now captured each and every address in Zimbabwe. The system is now water tight.
Mobilising voters
Low turnout has been rectified through massive voter education. We believe people are now aware of the exercise through, not only our campaigns, but also because this is the second phase. Naturally, people have heard about Phase One. The problem is addressing itself.
The turnout is now massive, with inquiries coming from areas we are yet to visit. At the end of Phase One, we had registered 1, 2 million people.
However, the figure has risen to 1, 4 million, meaning we registered around 200 000 people in two days, translating to around 100 000 people per day.
In 10 days, we would have registered a million.
To some extent, I would say it is partly true (that limited publicity resulted in suppressed registration figures in Phase One).
Like I said earlier, voter registration went slightly ahead of voter education so there was that mismatch. Now, other players have joined us.
Zec is no longer conducting voter education on BVR alone as 44 civic organisations have come on board as partners. Some of them are doing roadshows.
So, limited publicity may have affected the beginning of the exercise, but that is no longer an issue.
It is all our responsibility to mobilise voters to register.
Zec’s main responsibility is to make facilities available, but it can go a step further to encourage people to use those facilities. Yes, Zec may have a mandate to mobilise voters, but it is mainly the political parties because they are the ones who will benefit from registration of voters.
I’m coming from a meeting with political party representatives where I was imploring them to mobilise their members to vote. (This is under the auspices of the Multi-Party Liaison Committee). I don’t know where the apathy comes from, but I want to believe there is now some high level of excitement in the BVR exercise.
People are now turning up in high numbers, and we are recording high numbers per day than we did in the first phase.
The position is that we still require proof of residence.
We have been encouraging people to bring other proofs of residence other than the affidavit. It appears, though, that many people do not have any other paper. So, we have requested the Home Affairs Ministry to give our officers the status of Commissioners of Oaths to enable them to commission affidavits at voter registration centres instead of asking prospective voters to go elsewhere.
We are hoping that this will make the process much easier for most people.
Phases Three and Four will end around December 19, 2017.
However, as we conduct voter registration now, we are also looking into the possibility that perhaps by the time we come to the close of the exercise, some pockets somewhere may have been left out for one reason or another.
So, we are coming up with a mop-up strategy for those who may have missed the main exercise.
One strategy is making sure static registration centres remain in all districts. We will beef them up where necessary.
In Chitungwiza, for example, we have had to increase the number of (registration) kits at the main registration centre and to set up two additional centres to mop up those who missed the first exercise.
At the end of the fourth phase, we will bring all data to head office and then come up with a provisional voters’ roll. The public will inspect that roll after which Zec will clean it up as appropriate, producing the final roll. However, voter registration will continue even after we produce the final roll.
Election budget
Part of the US$274 million (2018 election budget) was for the acquisition of Biometric Voter Registration equipment, hardware, kits and allowances for officers conducting voter registration education.
Some of the money go towards allowances of officers who will conduct the actual poll, and acquiring motor vehicles since we will be mobile.
One or two sub-district offices did not have infrastructure. Remember, Zec is going to house very sensitive material and equipment, so we need to put up infrastructure in one or two districts.
The figure may sound too much, but that is the cost that we have put on our democracy. The bulk of it goes towards allowances. We are starting from zero and have had to buy everything.
I want to put it on record that the central or main server — the one that will contain the main voters roll data base — was procured for us by the United Nations Development Programme some four or five years ago.
Its capacity was limited, so they then offered to upgrade it for us.
They have since procured all components for the upgrade, and those components are being installed as we speak.
A consolidated voters’ roll will be available by February next year.
If we go by the Constitution, we are looking at elections being held around July or August. But they can come at any day (when the Presidential Proclamation is made).
So, our aim is just to be ready.
Most countries are using BVR, we are among the last to have adopted it. Tanzania, Namibia, Malawi and Zambia are already using the system.
BVR equipment has capacity to uniquely identify a voter because not only is demographic data being used, we are also capturing some of your biometrics and this leads to a cleaner voters’ roll with more integrity.
In our case, it is going to take out all “ghost” or dead voters as they will not be able to give us their biometrics. That is a major plus for us.
We have created platforms where we are constantly engaging all stakeholders.
We have met them at different levels, and the Multi-Party Liaison Committee is made up of major political parties represented in Parliament.
Stakeholders with issues they want Zec to consider can engage us on such platforms. Participants who attended the latest Multi-Party Liaison Committee meeting raised issues around proof of residence.
They also said they wanted political party agents to witness voter registration, and we have agreed that they can do so.
Justice Rita Makarau is Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. She was speaking to The Sunday Mail’s Sharon Munjenjema in Harare last week.
