The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has launched the One Plus Five voter registration campaign, in which every citizen is expected to urge five other persons to register as new voters in the upcoming voter registration programme.
This campaign comes as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has set up 5 000 registration centres for eligible citizens to use during the mobile biometric registration exercise, which begins on Sunday ahead of the harmonised elections.
Bulawayo alone has 71 registration centres, and the mobile voter registration campaign will end on March 21, 2023.
Addressing a press conference Thursday, CCC leader, Nelson Chamisa said it was the responsibility of each citizen to encourage five additional people to register as new voters ahead of the elections.
“We want to launch a campaign called One Plus Five, every citizen (encourage) five or your own, your relatives in your communities, those who are in the diaspora, One Plus Five, get your own five to be in the voters roll to come and support change. This is the new battalion of change, One Plus Five, let us go to the five that you are going to bring, to say, ‘this is what I contributed to the citizens’ project,’” he said while outlining the party’s Zimbabwe Agenda 2023.
The core theme of CCC’s agenda for 2023 is The Year of Citizens Victory: The freedom year, the restoration and transformation year.
Chamisa emphasised that those who are not registered to vote have no right to complain about the outcome of the elections.
“If you don’t play your part as a citizen, you may as well keep quiet. Don’t be an accomplice to bad governance by refusing to vote,” said the CCC leader.
So far 5.8 million individuals have registered to vote, and this latest exercise will be ZEC’s final round of voter registration before the elections.
Meanwhile, ZEC Acting Chief Elections Officer Jane Chigidi stated that a National Identity Card (metal, plastic, or waiting pass with the holder’s photo), a valid Zimbabwean passport, and proof of residence were required for one to register
“Only Zimbabwean citizens who are 18 years and above qualify to register. Please note that the category of persons whose national IDs are inscribed “ALIEN” eligible to register should have long Birth Certificates that indicate that: They were born in or outside Zimbabwe but one of their parents are citizens of Zimbabwe or they were born in Zimbabwe and one or both of their parents are citizens of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) country and that they were ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe on the day of the publication of the Constitution on 22 May 2013,” she said.
Chigidi said the registration centres will open from 7 am to 5 pm everyday including weekends.
