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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Online Reporter

THE voter education process on the delimitation exercise is in full swing in Matabeleland South province and Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials written in various languages has been distributed in various constituencies.

voter educators sort out iEC material at the Mat South Zec provincial offices in Gwanda. The material will be distributed to community members as part of the voter education program on the delimitation exercise

The voter education process is part of the final preparatory stages ahead of mapping of electoral boundaries as the country prepares for the holding of general elections next year.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has said the ongoing delimitation process will be completed by December this year.

Zec is in the process of delimitating the 210 constituency National Assembly seats for the forthcoming 2023 polls based on the latest census data.

Due to different rates of population growth, migration and land use changes, the boundaries of constituencies and wards need to be redrawn on a regular basis.

According to Zec, there are more than 5,8 million registered voters in Zimbabwe at the moment drawn from the country’s 10 provinces.

 Matabeleland South provincial elections officer Mr Rabson Nyoni said IEC material is being distributed in all languages in the province, including braille.

“The voter education is a critical process as it seeks to inform the public that there is a process of delimitation happening within our communities. We have received IEC material in different languages found in Matabeleland South and it is being distributed to various districts and then it will be distributed in various wards. We also have material available in braille,” he said.

 “We have voter educators who have started raising awareness on the delimitation process and now we are bringing in IEC material which they will be distributing as well. We have also held engagement meetings in the province where we have engaged provincial heads, faith based organisations and the civic organisations, today we are meeting with people with disability and then we will move on to engage political parties. We want to bring all stakeholders on board and make them understand this exercise as much as possible.”

 Delimitation, which is carried out after a population census and is provided for in Sections 160 and 161 of the Constitution, refers to the dividing of the country into constituencies and wards for the purposes of elections and involves coming up with a minimum threshold of registered voters in each of the country’s 210 National Assembly constituencies.

@DubeMatutu