Registered voters have been urged to participate in the ongoing voters’ roll inspection process to avoid inconveniences during the upcoming 2023 general elections.
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is currently carrying out a 10-day voters’ roll inspection which will end on 26 July 2022 ahead of the delimitation exercise.
A CITE news crew visited different inspection centres on Wednesday and observed that most of them were deserted.
Posting on her official Twitter account, Wednesday, Dr Thokozani Khupe lamented the low number of people inspecting the roll.
“Today I inspected the voters’ roll and established that about five people inspect the voters’ roll per day. This is a sad development and I am appealing to all citizens to go and inspect the voters’ roll- check that you are registered and ensure that your details are correct,” said Dr Khupe.
Speaking on a local radio station, Wednesday, on the inspection of the delimitation voters’ roll, ZEC District Election Officer Sithembiso Khupe said the voters’ role inspection is an exercise mandated to ZEC by the constitution.
“Voters’ roll captures information such as date of birth, names, ID numbers, addresses, all that is needed during registration. That information is captured in a voters’ roll and comes a time such as this one which is called voters’ roll inspections where people are asked to go to ZEC centres to check whether their information is captured correctly,” she said.
The ZEC official said the process is carried out so that during the election day, people don’t face any challenges, “this is the time to correct all information before the elections”.
“There are other people, especially women who were using their maiden name by the time of registration, and you find that they are now using the marriage name, this is also the time for them to change their surnames and use the ones they are now using in their national Identification. Some people even change their names, so they can also go there and change their information,” she said.
The district election officer said Bulawayo has 282 centres closer to people where they can check their details.
“We have changed polling stations to inspection centres, there are tents and schools where people can check. What is important is for people to go where they voted because that is where their names are, if you go to another polling station you will not be able to find your name,” she said.
The ZEC official added that people can also use the USSD code *265# for Econet and NetOne subscribers to check their details on their mobile phones
“The voters roll that we have released now is for the next step of the delimitation process which is the division of the country into constituencies for parliamentary seats and into wards for local authorities. This program is done every 10 years after the census.”
She also encouraged people to participate in the electoral processes especially when they are brought closer to them rather than having to look for their offices.
“We are also urging those who are not yet registered to go and register to vote even after the 26th of July,” said Khupe.
