Just-ended voter registration a sham, says Chimhini

HARARE - An influential civil society organisation, the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust (ZIMCET), has joined the long list of democracy advocates condemning the just-ended mobile voter registration exercise as a sham.

ZIMCET executive director, David Chimhini said the government wasted taxpayers’ money by deploying at least 2000 officials to register only 80 000 people in two months.

Chimhini, a former head of human rights watchdog, ZimRights said more voters could have been registered if the Registrar General’s office and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had held education programmes before the launch and during the registration exercise.

“It is laughable because how can a whole government deploy as many as 2000 officials to register as few as 80 000 people over two months.  This is sheer wastage of public funds,” he said.

He added that the voter registration programme was poorly communicated to the people. He said some communities did not even know that mobile voter registration teams were in their areas, while in other cases people were turned away after being told that only those wishing to obtain identity documents were being served.

“For example in my home area, in Mutasa North in Honde Valley in Manicaland province, most people were not aware of the programme or where they could register as voters.  This in addition to several reports we have heard, shows that the programme was flawed and held over a very short period of time,” said Chimhini, a former head of human rights watchdog, ZimRights.

His condemnation of the exercise comes hot on the heels of a similar
assessment by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN).  ZESN identified several flaws in the voter registration.

The body unearthed damning evidence that, Zanu PF used its influence to bus people from the party’s rural strongholds to urban centres, like Harare where they were registered as voters.
This, charged ZESN was meant to beef the ruling party’s support, at the same time, diluting the popularity of MDC, which enjoys traditional support in urban areas countrywide.

ZESN also accused Zanu PF of using housing co-operatives, such as Ernest Kadungure in Harare North to register people from rural areas.

The prospective voters added ZESN were given proof of residence by the co-operatives, indicating that they are Harare residents yet the
co-operative has not built even a single house.

The Registrar-General’s Office, which is responsible for voter registration, requires letters from landlords or water and electricity bills as proof that those seeking to register as voters reside in the constituencies where they want to vote.

Both factions of the MDC, have also condemned the manner in which the exercise was done, saying its supporters were systematically turned away from registration centres.  Furthermore, they have said it was done secretly, warning that vote rigging is already in motion, seven months before the elections.  They have called for an extension of the mobile registration programme.

Chimhini expressed fears that Zanu – PF would once again use the prevailing drought to politicise food aid in a bid to earn votes in next year’s elections.

“This is a drought year and there is food aid distribution going on and
my fear is that Zanu – PF will politicise food.  But our people must be
educated and know that it is the responsibility of any government to
feed its people,” he said.

Zimbabwe will hold local government and joint parliamentary and
presidential elections next year.