Source: 1,2m voters registered – DailyNews Live
Farayi Machamire 1 November 2017
HARARE – A total 1 240 459 voters were registered during the first phase
of the biometric voter registration (BVR) exercise launched on October 10
and completed on October 25, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has said.
During the exercise, a total 28 515 potential registrants were turned away
due to various reasons which included production of wrong documents such
as a driver’s licence, being under age, failure to produce proof of
residence and presentation of defaced documents.
“This figure does not reflect the actual number of people who failed to
register since some of them later returned to the registration centres
with the requisite documents and were registered,” Zec said in a
statement.
“Areas covered by the first phase were mainly the flood prone regions
which are difficult to reach during the rainy season such as Chiredzi,
Mwenezi, Chipinge, Chimanimani, Mudzi, Mutoko, Muzarabani, Mbire,
Hurungwe, Kariba, Gokwe, Binga and Insiza.
“All in all, the Commission established 2 528 voter registration centres
and deployed 2 697 BVR kits including the static 63 district centres
earmarked for continuous voter registration.
“In order to bring awareness to the electorate on the exercise, the
Commission employed various strategies which included face to face
meetings, addressing gatherings, road shows, distribution of flyers,
pamphlets, posters, radio and television programmes and adverts as well as
disseminating information on the Zec website.”
Several Civil Society Organisations were also accredited to augment the
Commission’s voter education exercise while a total of 2 091 people were
accredited to observe the voter registration exercise
The commission established a Call Centre to receive queries from the
general public.
“The Toll Free Numbers are 08080265 for Econet line users, 08010265 for
NetOne users and 265 for Telecell line holders.”
Phase two scheduled to run from October 29 to November 13 has begun while
Phase three will be conducted between November 16 and December 1.
Phase four will run from December 4 to 19.
COMMENTS