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Justice Makarau

Harare Bureau
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will conduct by-elections in Chirumanzu-Zibagwe and Mt Darwin West constituencies at the end of next month using its newly compiled voters’ roll.Previously, the Registrar-General’s Office used to administer the voters’ roll.

But according to the new Constitution on Section 239 (d), ZEC is mandated to compile the voters’ roll and registers.

As such, the electoral commission has since embarked on a pilot voter inspection and registration exercise in the two constituencies as well as Chinhoyi Municipality Ward 15.

The exercise was conducted from January 26 to February 10.

Appearing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs yesterday, ZEC chairperson, Justice Rita Makarau, said if the pilot project succeeded, the commission would go full throttle on a nationwide registration exercise.

Harare West legislator, Jessie Majome (MDC-T) chairs the committee. Majome asked if ZEC was in exclusive control of the voters’ roll as enshrined in the Constitution.

“This exclusive control is given to us by the law and we are just following the law,” said Justice Makarau. “We’ve done the voter registration exercise ourselves, we’re analysing the data. We will come up with our own voters’ roll in whatever state it will be for these two by-elections and let all of you be the judges of whether we’re doing a better job or not.

“We’ve started off with a pilot project for these two constituencies and the by-elections. It’s our hope that once we’ve gotten it right in the two constituencies, then we roll out a nationwide programme to register voters throughout the country. Currently, we aren’t registering voters throughout the country. The results will guide us.”

Zanu-PF MP for Goromonzi South, Cde Petronella Kagonye, enquired what mechanisms ZEC was putting in place to ensure the voters’ roll was easily accessible since it was supposed to be a public document.

“The one that we’re compiling will be  readily available to the public. We will make it  available in whatever form the law demands that it be available.

“We will give out electronic copies of that voters’ roll to the public, we will give you hard copies if you ask for it and you pay the fee for it. Whatever the law says we should do, we will definitely do that on the voters’ roll that we’re compiling. I just want to make that very clear, on the one that we’ve started compiling,” she said.

Justice Makarau said the commission was on course to conducting the by-elections.

Cde Kagonye raised concern on the use of registration slips during the by-elections saying they had raised eyebrows at the July 31, 2013 harmonised elections as some voters were said to have used the same slip to cast their ballot several times.