IN a first for the country, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) will from Tuesday display names of voters eligible to vote at particular polling stations.
The country will hold by-elections for a number of vacant
seats in the National Assembly and various local authorities on Saturday. The
by-elections will see 117 local authority and 28 National Assembly seats up for
grabs. In the last harmonised elections voting was also polling station based
but ZEC was not displaying names of voters though individual voters could check
their details at selected centres before the election day.
ZEC spokesperson Commissioner Joyce Kazembe told Sunday
News yesterday that as part of preparations for the weekend elections, names of
people who can vote will be posted at specific polling stations.
“What will be happening now is that by Tuesday we will be
posting the list of people that will be voting at the individual polling stations
so people can go and view the list and they confirm that their names are there.
Our aim is that each polling station caters for 1 000 voters to avoid
overcrowding, so in an instance that the station has more than 1 000 voters we
will then create another polling station within that polling station,” said
Comm Kazembe.
She said the commission was
ready for the by-elections and printing of ballot papers was complete.
Comm Kazembe said ballot papers would
soon be distributed to various command centres before their distribution to
polling stations in preparation for voting day.
“In terms of staffing we have got people from the Public
Service Commission and Local Government as we are mandated to engage them as
polling officers. The recruitment has been done and we are satisfied.
“Tomorrow (today) we expect to have the final training of
our officers including our police officers, on what will be expected of them
after which they will be deployed to the various polling stations in time for
the posting of the voters roll so the public can be able to view and verify
where they will be voting,” she said.
Comm Kazembe said the $3 billion that had been disbursed to
the organisation by government was enough for the elections and so far they had
not experienced any notable challenges in the run-up to the elections. Most of
the vacant seats to be contested became vacant following recalls of
MDC-Alliance members following a Supreme Court verdict that Mr Nelson Chamisa
illegally assumed the leadership of the opposition party. Polling in other
areas has been necessitated by deaths of MPs and councillors
Matabeleland region has 20 vacant local authority seats and
four National Assembly seats. Bulawayo has nine vacant council seats,
Matabeleland North has five and Matabeleland South has six. Bulawayo’s seats
fell vacant following the recall of eight councillors and the death of Ronnah
Mudara, all from the MDC-T party while in Matabeleland North two councillors
were recalled in Victoria Falls and three Zanu-PF councillors died.
In Matabeleland South, the MDC-T recalled three councillors
while three Zanu-PF councillors died.
In terms of Parliament, Bulawayo has two National Assembly
vacant seats after Advocate Kucaca Phulu, who was the National Assembly member
for Nkulumane Constituency and Ms Sichelesile Mahlangu who represented Pumula
Constituency were recalled by MDC-T.
Matabeleland North also has two Parliamentary vacant seats,
Binga North and Tsholotsho South. Tsholotsho South constituency fell vacant
following the death of Zanu-PF’s legislator Cde Zenzo Sibanda, who succumbed to
Covid-19 in August last year, while Binga North became vacant after MDC’s
Prince Dubeko Sibanda was recalled by his party early last year. There are no
vacant Parliamentary seats in Matabeleland South. Sunday News
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