ZEC chief elections officer Mr Utloile Silaigwana said
yesterday in a statement, that the voters’ roll met the provision of the
Electoral Act as it was searchable and analysable. But he noted that the Act
“permits the commission to format the voters’ roll to prevent it from being
altered or tampered with”. “It is for this reason why ZEC has issued out the
voters’ roll in its current format. There is nowhere in the Act where it is
stated that the roll should be in Excel or printable formats known to have compromised
security features.
“The voters’ roll issued out to candidates has columns for
the voter’s surname, forename, ID number, gender, date of birth, voter’s
address, polling station, ward, local authority, constituency, district and
province as prescribed in Section 20(2) of the Electoral Act.”
Mr Silaigwana said polling station codes have not been
included on the voters’ roll because they are an administrative tool used by
the commission to map out polling stations during delimitation, hence they are not
part of the voters’ roll as alleged.
He said the electorate and other stakeholders should expect
to see real names of polling stations and not codes on the voters’ rolls.
“Ordinary voters without access to the electronic voters’
roll are encouraged to dial the USSD Code *265# on their mobile phones to
ascertain their registration status and polling station.
“The commission would like to urge all stakeholders with
queries on the voters’ roll or any other electoral issue to approach the
commission for clarification. They should desist from casting aspersions on the
voters’ roll and other electoral processes as this may affect voter turnout and
discredit the polls,” said Mr Silaigwana. Herald
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