Zimbabwe is expected to hold general elections in 2023.
The voter registration exercise will run until April
30. In the first phase in February, the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) registered 81 724 new voters.
NewsDay visited several voter registration centres in
Harare yesterday and found that teams from Zec spent the day chatting as few
people turned up to register.
The commission deployed two teams per constituency out of
the 210 constituencies under the current blitz.
Zec spokesman Jasper Mangwana told NewsDay that the low
voter turnout could be attributed to lack of interest.
“To be honest with you, I am not so sure what is happening.
Some people are not interested in voting, remember voting is not mandatory,”
Mangwana said.
He said they were expecting more new voters after the
issuance of identity documents by the Registrar-General’s Office which also is
conducting an exercise to provide key documents such as birth certificates and
national identity cards.
“We sent our voter educators on the ground last week and
they informed people that we were coming to those constituencies. We are
carrying out radio programmes at community radio stations, including Radio
Zimbabwe.
“We have been assisted by the RG in terms of identity
documents and we are expecting many people to come and register to vote,
especially those in the rural areas, now that they have access to identity
documents,” Mangwana said.
The voter registration blitz was initially scheduled for
December last year, but was postponed following concerns that the majority of
potential voters did not have identity documents. Newsday
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