The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has registered 164 924 prospective voters since the inception of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise in Manicaland. Of these, 8 775 were registered at seven static stations situated at ZEC district offices and the rest under the first phase of the registration blitz that was launched on October 4 and closed on Wednesday in Chimanimani, Chipinge, three wards in Buhera South and two wards in Mutare district. Provincial Elections Officer (Manicaland), Mr Moffat Masabeya, yesterday (Thursday) said 66 678 were females and 98 246 were males.
“We are generally happy with the turn-out and we are optimistic that the turn-out will increase as we enter the second phase of the registration blitz in Mutasa, Nyanga and Mutare North constituency,” said Mr Masabeya. Manicaland, according to the 2014 national census results, has 912 762 potential voters, and ZEC was targeting to register at least 80 percent. “People should come in their numbers to register at their nearest polling station because if they miss this opportunity, they may have to incur extra expenses to register at ZEC district offices,” said Mr Masabeya.
He said both voter education and registration were staggered into phases and when the second phase of registration ends, voter education officers would then go on the ground a week earlier before the BVR operators for the third phase. He said Manicaland had 345 BVR kits and ZEC had recruited enough personnel to handle the BVR kits. The third phase will run from November 16 to December 1, targeting Makoni District and Buhera North constituency. The fourth phase starts from December 4 to December 19, targeting the remainder of Mutare and Buhera districts,” he said.
Manicaland has 1 321 registration centres whose distribution hinges on the size of the district, constituency and ward. Mr Masabeya said the only hitch was of traditional leaders who were illegally charging their subjects for proof of residence. He said a hospital card can also be used as proof of residence. ZEC and the Local Government were working on solving the challenge.
