Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has launched a door-to-door campaign in Bulawayo to urge residents to register to vote ahead of the constituency delimitation exercise set for this year.
Bulawayo, Matabeleland South, and Matabeleland North have the lowest number of registered voters and are set to lose constituencies if the number of registered voters does not improve during the ongoing Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise.
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is currently rolling out the second and last phase of mobile biometric voter registration (BVR) countrywide ahead of the delimitation exercise set for August this year which will determine the size of constituencies.
The door-to-door campaign started in the Njube-Lobengula constituency, where party members were going door to door encouraging residents to register to vote.
Speaking during a briefing before the door-to-door campaign, CCC interim vice president, Professor Welshman Ncube said people should be encouraged to go to register to vote ahead of the delimitation exercise.
“There is going to be a delimitation process this year Countrywide, this process is very important as you will be sending representation to Harare, this means that when you send a few people, it means Bulawayo won’t be heard, it means there will be few people representing your issues in Parliament,” said Professor Ncube.
“When they also select ministers and you are found with few MPs, they won’t even select a minister, so it’s important to register to vote in numbers so that we will have representatives in Parliament.”
He said the door-to-door campaign is going to be conducted in all constituencies in Bulawayo before the end of the ongoing BVR process.
“This exercise is going to be conducted in all areas in Bulawayo but at the moment we have pamphlets that we are distributing, we asked Zimbabweans in the diaspora to assist us in printing these pamphlets and they said at the moment they can only assist with 10 constituencies. We hope that they are continuing with the remaining two constituencies so that they can also get the pamphlets before the BVR exercise is over, so that we manage all the 12 constituencies in Bulawayo,” said Professor Ncube.
He added that they have currently set 10 teams to do the door-to-door campaigns in the 10 constituencies.
“We are also encouraging even registered voters to go and check their names because at times people will be hoping that since they voted the last election their names are automatically there, yet your name has been mistakenly removed,” said Professor Ncube.
He added, “Today we have seven teams with team leaders, they are going to go until 5 pm, we are not sure how many houses they would have reached but we hope as many as possible.”
Professor Ncube said the next constituency is going to be Nketa- Emganwini constituency.
“ We hope by the end of the BVR, we would have reached all constituencies, what is important is for people of Bulawayo to register to vote so that we don’t lose a constituency in fact gain a constituency so that Bulawayo will be equally represented in Parliament,” he said.
