POLLING STATION-BASED VOTING LEGALISED

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) chairperson Priscilla Chigumba has taken the final step needed to give legal effect to polling station-based voting.

Chigumba has done so by gazetting the requisite amendments to the Electoral Act that had not been in force, and giving an effective date for their operation.

“It is hereby notified, in terms of section 42 (2) of the Electoral Amendment Act 2012, (No.3 of 2012), that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has fixed the date of publication of this notice as the date on which section 42 of that Act comes into operation,” the gazette reads.

Meanwhile, voter registration is still ongoing alongside the inspection of the voters’ roll ahead of the forthcoming harmonised elections.

Zec has since established 2 018 ward registration centres to run concurrently with the inspection of the voters’ roll.

The inspection of the provisional voters’ roll ends today while voter registration will continue at the 63 Zec district centres until 12 days after the sitting of the nomination court.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police has reportedly established a national and provincial command centres to monitor the electoral environment and respond accordingly.

In addition, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission is also on the ground, monitoring human rights violations related to voters’ roll inspection and voter registration that might arise.
For inspection of the voters’ roll, Zec has provided four methods of checking one’s name on the voters’ roll namely; an SMS from Zec, a USSD platform for the citizen to check (*265#), physical checking at the polling station and an online platform.

At least 3,4 million registered voters registered their numbers with Zec and are receiving SMS confirmations from the commission, while others prefer to use the USSD platform.

Zec reports indicate that 719 387 had used the USSD platform to check their details on the voters’ roll while 3 256 440 had received bulk SMS by May 22, 2018. Daily News

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