This comes after a number of political parties raised alarm
at the price quoted to the Election Resource Centre (ERC) by Zec last week for
a printed copy of the voters roll.
A number of minority political outfits have since expressed
lack of capacity to meet the Zec demand.
Zanu PF director for information Tafadzwa Mugwadi, however,
told NewsDay “there is nothing in this country that is beyond Zanu PF’s
capacity”.
“Of course, I am not in the finance department or party
finance secretary, but you should know that there is nothing in Zimbabwe that
is beyond Zanu PF’s capacity and there is nothing that is within Zanu PF’s
means which we cannot do,” Mugwadi boastfully told NewsDay.
Mugwadi then referred NewsDay to the party’s finance
secretary, Patrick Chinamasa, who said this was a political issue, which he was
not at liberty to comment on.
However, Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa said
Zec should ensure a level playing field to allow participation by various
stakeholders.
“The threshold should be lower to ensure a democratic right
to everyone. The price will not affect the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC)
or Zanu PF, but it affects all political parties. There should not be a barrier
to entry,” Mutsvangwa said before referring NewsDay to Justice minister Ziyambi
Ziyambi, who refused to comment on the matter.
“I do not comment to NewsDay. I would rather buy you a
drink and have a good chat about other things, but no, I will not make any
official comment to NewsDay,” he said.
In an interview with NewsDay, ERC director Babra Bhebe said
the voters roll should be easily accessible to anyone who needed to verify and
check for errors.
“The purpose of stakeholders accessing the voters roll is
that they can do an analysis of the voters roll and if there are any anomalies
within the voters roll, we then share with the commission for the purposes of
improving the quality of the voters roll. Something must be done to reduce the
cost of accessing the voters roll,” Bhebe said.
Some political parties have expressed concern over the
exorbitant fees.
According to Statutory Instrument 143 of 2022, a hard copy
of the voters roll shall be US$1 per page of the national voters roll.
The electronic voters roll shall cost US$200.
CCC national deputy secretary for elections Ellen
Shiriyedenga said it was logical for Zec to first avail the electronic voters
roll which was affordable.
“We don’t have the electronic copy of the voters roll and
for some reason, Zec is not giving us. Zec should make the electronic copy
easily accessible since it is cheaper than the hard copy. Surely, for a
national voters roll, we will need a whole truckload and above US$50 000 to get
it, which is not making sense at all. Zec should be transparent and allow
stakeholders to audit the voters roll,” Shiriyedenga said.
National Constitutional Assembly leader Lovemore Madhuku
said Zec’s latest demand was unacceptable.
“This is ridiculous and completely unacceptable. Zec does
not seem to be interested in running a fair election. They want to make sure
they tighten every screw as they did with nomination fees. This should be
changed as soon as possible,” Madhuku said. Newsday
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