The voters’ roll inspection exercise witnessed a low turnout in Bulawayo, with some voters failing to find their names on the roll while others discovered they had been relocated to other polling stations, a circumstance that polling officers on the ground attributed to delimitation.
However, observers and opposition political parties blamed
this on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) dishonest election
administration.
The aim of the voter’s roll inspection exercise is to
verify voters’ registration details as they apply to their constituency, ward,
polling station, prevent fraud, identify irregularities and build trust in
electoral processes.
During the observation period, the political environment
was calm but the number of people coming to check their details was ‘very’ low,
as the news crew would find inspection stations unoccupied with ZEC officers
just sitting.
Given the limited number of people who physically presented
themselves for inspection, determining the number of voters who successfully
confirmed their names from the voters’ roll was challenging.
On the other hand, potential voters, including some
opposition members, were disappointed to learn their names were not on the
roll, with little assistance from ZEC officers who could only take their names
and refer them to ZEC provincial offices in Famona.
A group of women who had gone to verify their names at
Masiyephambili Junior were upset that their names were absent, claiming this
was an indication their ability to vote would be revoked.
The group was now organising themselves and saving each
other’s contact information in preparation for their next move.
As CITE visited the inspection centres in Bulawayo, some
ZEC officers were uncomfortable having the media around especially at Cowdray
Park Central SDA while other inspection centres claimed the journalists had no
accreditation, which ZEC did not call for.
It was also observed the ability of the public to check the
roll for non-residents, dead people, or multiple registrants was hampered by
the fact that the voters’ rolls were not posted outside in all the centres
visited because ZEC officers only had the roll inside the station.
At some stations such as Richmond Hall, Northend and Milton
High, ZEC officers did confirm the turnout was low but attributed that to
people possibly using the mobile function *265# to check their registration
details.
“Some came to the wrong station and we directed them to
their stations. We also used the mobile function to check where some were
registered if their names were not on the roll here. Of course, there are
network problems and some we referred to ZEC offices,” said the presiding
officer at Northend.
ZEC officers at Newmansford Primary reported that less than
40 people had been served in the two days.
“On Sunday we had about 33 people and today so far only
five. Yesterday about half managed to find their names, the other half, no. We
asked those whose names were not there to go to ZEC. Most probably,
delimitation is the reason which has resulted in changes, their names could be
there but at different polling stations,” said the officer.
The ZEC officer urged citizens to act quickly since, once
the president announced the election date, they would only have two days to
have their names added to the roll.
“About 40 people have come here but the roll we have here
has 72 people. We noted more elderly people, those whose names were not here we
redirected them to other nearby polling stations. We had to check the range of
their house numbers and redirect them accordingly,” said the presiding officer.
Political party agents were largely absent from the polling
stations visited, and it was noted that some polling stations had voting
populations of fewer than 100 people, such as Tategulu Primary in Cowdray Park,
where the voters roll has 72 names, which may have implications for the secrecy
of the vote, as it may be easy to target people, especially given the polling
station-based voters’ roll.
A member of the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change
(CCC), David Coltart, whose name was moved to another polling station without
his knowledge, said ZEC was supposed to notify voters of the changes in terms
of Section 35 (2) of the Electoral Act which they did not do.
“This has been done to sow confusion. The only way these
shenanigans can be countered is if everyone takes the time to check the voter’s
roll. Please do so, this nonsense must end,” he said. CITE
0 comments:
Post a Comment