The delimitation exercise creation of new electoral
boundaries will be conducted using census data.
The last delimitation exercise conducted in terms of the
old constitution ahead of the 2008 elections and based on the
Registrar-General’s voters roll saw the opposition crying foul that their
strongholds had been halved.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has warned that
Bulawayo, an opposition stronghold, will lose constituencies since the voter
registered population for the city falls far short of the minimum threshold.
“The issue (of voter registration) is an emergency because
the sadistic central government will not hesitate to reduce parliamentary seats
for Bulawayo.
“It is, therefore, imperative that there be a convergence
by stakeholders, in particular residents and prospective voters, around this
important issue,” MDC Alliance provincial spokesperson Swithern Chirowodza
said.
“We are targeting 500 000 new registrants and we encourage
political parties, activists and society organisations to converge with us to
produce the required synergies.”
ZEC has lifted the suspension on voter registration, but a
ban on by-elections as a Covid-19 preventive measure remains in place.
Zapu and MDC spokespersons Iphithule Maphosa and Witness
Dube respectively echoed the same sentiments as they pleaded with Zimbabweans,
who are eligible to vote to register for the upcoming elections.
“The party is alive and well, and is already moving a gear
up in ensuring that as many people as possible register to vote in the next
general elections to avoid losing constituencies because of low voter
registration,” Dube said.
On Friday, MDC president Douglas Mwonzora launched a voter
registration campaign in Matabeleland South.
Maphosa weighed in saying financial challenges besetting
the opposition party had not affected its voter registration awareness drive.
“While we as a party are financially constrained to
physically assist at a larger scale, we have managed to help a few with
logistics to do the actual registration after our information sessions within
communities,” Maphosa noted.
“We also have highlighted the negative implications of
non-response to calls for heightened registration in potential risk areas of
Bulawayo and Matabeleland as well as lobbying for the abandoning of the law
that resulted in constituency delimitation being regulated based on voter
density.
“We advocate for this to be influenced by population
density, needs assessments and the desire to achieve inclusive and equal
representation.”
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube allocated $2.3 billion to ZEC
in his 2021 budget, of which $1.744 billion is meant to fund the delimitation
exercise.
According to independent election watchdog, the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network (Zesn), there has been little progress in implementing
recommendations of observer missions on improving the quality of voter
registration processes.
Observer missions in their recommendations after the 2018
harmonised elections emphasised the need for the establishment of more
permanent registration centres and ease of registration in urban areas,
particularly in Bulawayo and Harare, among others.
Zesn has been tracking progress on the implementation of
the 2023 election observer mission recommendations that call for the review of
the legislative and electoral framework against the country’s constitution,
regional and international principles governing the holding of democratic
elections. Standard
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