ZANU-PF leadership in Matabeleland South province has said the party will embark on an intensive campaign to get more people to register to vote before the delimitation exercise as the province risks losing over five constituencies.
Delimitation, which is carried out after a population
census and is provided for in Sections 160 and 161 of the Constitution, refers
to the dividing of the country into constituencies and wards for the purposes
of elections and involves coming up with a minimum threshold of registered
voters in each of the country’s 210 National Assembly constituencies.
The exercise could see some constituencies with a low
number of registered voters being merged with others while some could be split
into more than one, subject to the number of registered voters.
The region, which is least represented in Parliament, has
38 parliamentary seats out of 210 constituencies.
Bulawayo has 12 seats with Matabeleland South and
Matabeleland North having 13 each.
The remainder of the seats are spread across the other
seven provinces outside the Matabeleland region.
It has been previously reported that the Matabeleland
region has the least number of registered voters countrywide, a development
that could eventually result in the loss of constituencies ahead of the 2023
harmonised elections if the trend remains the same.
According to statistics released by the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (Zec) recently, Bulawayo has the lowest number of registered voters
with 254 630 followed by Matabeleland South with 259 689 registered voters and
Matabeleland North standing at 335 851.
Speaking during a provincial coordinating committee (PCC)
meeting in Gwanda yesterday, Zanu-PF Matabeleland South provincial chairman,
Cde Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu, said the party has the capacity to retain its
seats in the province.
He, however, said more needs to be done to ensure that
people register to vote.
“The country is going through three major activities which
include the mobile registration exercise, which is being conducted by Civil
Registry Department, the biometric voter registration exercise and the
population and housing census.
“These are very important exercises and Matabeleland South
province however, stands to lose between five to seven constituencies if the
voter registration numbers don’t improve,” said Cde Ndlovu.
“We are a stronghold of Zanu-PF and if we don’t take action
now to correct the trend we are seeing, we would have let our party down.”
Cde Ndlovu called on party members to encourage the masses
to obtain birth certificates and national identity documents for them to be
able to register to vote.
“The dispensation that we have been given by President
Mnangagwa has relaxed the requirements for obtaining national identity
documents. If we don’t take action to correct the trend of low voter
registration, we would have let our President down,” he said.
“Let us therefore try as much as we can to save our
constituencies in this province.”
Cde Ndlovu said the ruling party has the responsibility to
make sure that development initiatives are delivered to the people.
“President Mnangagwa has made sure that provinces have
power through devolution. The party constitution confers adequate powers for us
to monitor implementation of Government programmes and propose policies for
implementation,” he said.
In Matabeleland North, Zanu-PF yesterday held their
provincial youth meeting in Lupane during which President Mnangagwa was
endorsed as the sole Presidential candidate in next year’s harmonised
elections.
The national team that was deployed to monitor and
supervise the process were Cde Tonderai Bosha, Cde Mthandazo Sibanda and Cde
Munashe Mtutsa.
Cde Alvin Lundy Sinzeka was elected provincial Youth League
chairperson. Others who were elected into the provincial executive are Cdes
Thubelihle Duke Ncube, Future Mhlanga, Sikhangezile Ndlovu, Allman Ndlovu,
Mbongeni Dube, Mpilwenhle Moyo and Shyleen Butau.
According to the 362nd Ordinary Session of the Politburo,
it was also noted that Matabeleland North had only male candidates earmarked
for the forthcoming provincial nominations.
During yesterday’s meeting, a call was made for aspiring
female candidates to submit their CVs for election into the Youth League
national executive. Chronicle
0 comments:
Post a Comment