The public has been urged to take advantage of the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (Zec)’s mobile registration exercises next month and in
April to register.
Analysts have said participating in electoral processes has
implications in the development of local communities, hence the need to
register to vote.
In a public notice, Zec revealed that as of January 8, the
country had 5.6 million registered voters countrywide.
Women constitute most of the registered voters with more
than 3 million on the voter’s roll.
From the Zec statistics, 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.
Mashonaland Central has 527 505 registered voters, Masvingo
610 436, Mashonaland East 625 330 and Mashonaland West 647 768.
Harare has the highest number of registered voters with 891
024 followed by Midlands with 752 665, while Manicaland has 727 677 registered
voters.
Zec chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba said members of
the public should take advantage of the coming mobile voter registration
exercise to increase the number of eligible voters.
The first phase of Zec’s mobile registration exercise
starts on February 1 up to February 28, with the second phase running from
April 11 to April 30.
“When we roll out the kit deployment plan for the voter
registration, all those areas that were said to be remote and difficult to
access, we will be sending mobile kits into those areas during specified times
and dates, which will be advised in advance and hopefully we will get
registrants coming up in high numbers to register.
The solution to the problem is having more registrants
coming up to register if they want to retain their seats,” said Justice
Chigumba.
She said the delimitation exercise that will be carried out
in August will determine the number of constituencies each province will have.
Political parties and civil society organisations have
rallied members of the public to register to vote, saying participating in
electoral processes is directly linked to development.
Zanu-PF Matabeleland South political commissar Cde
Washington Nkomo said the ruling party will soon embark on voter education
programmes.
“The statistics are worrying and as a new provincial
executive, we will soon roll out a programme to encourage people to vote. We
understand the implications of having few registered voters as a province, as
it might result in us losing constituencies in future elections,” said Cde
Nkomo.
“Losing constituencies will mean that as a province we have
lesser representation in Parliament.
Parliament plays an oversight role on the Executive, so our
legislators become our voices in Parliament. If we have few representatives
compared to other provinces, it means that even on development issues we will
miss out.”
He said they are confident that when Zec rolls out its
mobile registration blitz, more people will be registered.
Civil Society Organisations in the Matabeleland region have
formed a coalition under the banner Ekhaya Vote to encourage the public to
register to vote.
Ekhaya Vote spokesperson Mr Nkosikhona Dibiti said
participating in the electoral process is key for the development of the
Matabeleland region.
He said more people need to be educated about the need to
participate in elections.
“Some people don’t even know why voting is necessary for
them. To them it’s just about someone being elected. But this goes far beyond
that as it speaks to the distribution of resources based on available
demographic figures,” he said.
“So, we need to come up with a holistic approach and have
to ask these questions; can we link voting to service delivery, can we link
voting to resource distribution?
That is the kind of thinking we should be stuck with
instead of just thinking about who won and who lost.
That will not bear much difference to the everyday lives of people. Let us link it to the development of constituencies and the region.” Chronicle
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