The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has implored citizens to take the opportunity of the voters roll inspection programme to thoroughly check their details and polling stations where they will cast their vote.
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has launched a five-day voters roll inspection process which started today and will end on 31st May 2023, ahead of the August elections.
ZEC said there will be 1 594 inspection centres country-wide.
ZEC has advised that some centres might delay opening due to logistical challenges and they might be an extension beyond 31 May, if need be, in some of the affected areas.
In a press conference held Friday in Harare, CCC deputy secretary for elections Ellen Shiriyedenga said this is an opportunity for citizens to check if their information is captured correctly.
“It is a good opportunity for citizens to physically visit the voter registration centres as announced by ZEC and also utilise the online platforms that have been provided for by ZEC. What we are saying as the CCC and that is a message to all Zimbabwean citizens out there who are eligible, who have registered as voters to say this is a big opportunity for you, you need to check if your name is correctly captured on the voters roll,” she said.
Shiriyedenga said citizens with wrong information will face the risk of not voting on election day.
“If say for example your name has been misspelt or possibly maybe your identity number has not been captured correctly, there is a high risk that you will not be able to vote on election day, so rather instead of you exposing yourself to that risk just take up the opportunity, visit the registration centre at the ZEC inspection offices and at the same time utilize the online platforms.”
She added that citizens should inspect the voters roll following the delimitation process that saw the changes of boundaries, wards and polling stations.
“Secondly, the reason why we implore citizens to take up this opportunity is that we just came from delimitation, there are lots of changes with regards to constituency boundaries, ward boundaries and even some polling stations have been changed, you might be used to your own traditional polling station, only to wake up today and be told no your name is not on that polling station, so really this is an opportunity for people to go out there and inspect the roll to see whether their names are still in their respective polling stations where they used to vote at,” said Shiriyedenga.
She noted that as a party they have noted some anomalies which they will be referring to ZEC for redress.
“We are receiving reports from the citizens out there which we will be referring to ZEC for redress, for example we have people in ward 18 here in Harare which before delimitation was Harare North but now when they try to check in the BVR online system, they are still reflected as being under Harare North get with this current delimitation, they are supposed to be in Harare East, so we have received numerous inquiries in that regard to say they have not been changed in terms of the new delimitation boundaries, so that is one issue which we are relaying to ZEC to actually address,” she said.
“And also we have had instances for example in Bulawayo there are some wards that moved from ward 4 to ward 5 which is now under Bulawayo South, we have noted that about four of the affected polling stations they are not there in the listed voter inspection centres, so this is the kind of clarity that we kind of request from ZEC to say what has happened to those people that where in those respective polling stations because they might risk at the end of the day that there could be left out and come election day those people if they do not check their names at the moment they might risk having their names not being there on the voters roll,” said Shiriyedenga.
She urged ZEC to address those anomalies that have been identified.
