Zec chairperson Priscilla Chigumba told a local television
station, ZTN, on Wednesday that the electoral management body’s system had
picked up several multiple voter registrants sponsored by civic groups.
But Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiCZ) spokesperson Obert
Masaraure told NewsDay Weekender that the Zec allegations were meant to
frustrate potential voters and the voter registration awareness campaigns.
“The commission and government officials should not
bad-mouth patriotic citizens who are working hard to strengthen our democracy.
The coalition is moving in to co-ordinate voter mobilisation among its
membership to avoid duplication of their great efforts,” Masaraure said.
“We salute all citizens who are working around the clock to
mobilise citizens to register to vote. Our democracy is strengthened when the
majority of our people are afforded the right to vote.”
Residents Associations Coalition for Electoral Reforms
spokesperson Marvelous Khumalo described the allegations by Zec as “shocking”.
“As civil society, we are actually shocked that government
is actually blaming CSOs and accusing them of assisting in terms of raising
awareness on voting processes and doing some kind of voter education,” Khumalo
said.
“As CSOs, we are non-partisan in terms of the scope of our
work, so instead, government should be actually appreciating our efforts that
we are going out of our hands in terms of making sure that we reach out to the
communities
“I can only laugh at such an allegation because look, what
is our incentive? Where will we be getting such kind of money to pay people to
vote? … they should simply approach the police and register a complaint and
then the law must take its course.”
Project Vote 263 chairperson Allan Chipoyi added: “Chigumba
doesn’t even know or understand how the biometric voter registration (BVR)
system works because it refuses to register a name that has been already
registered. Secondly, she doesn’t understand how BVR works.”
He also said CSOs were only providing transport for people
who wanted to register to vote, adding “people are never rewarded for
registering to vote. No one pays them.”
Zec has said it would roll out a voter registration blitz
in February and April to ensure all eligible voters register ahead of next
year’s general election. Newsday
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