By Vumani Mthiyane
MATABELELAND South province could lose more constituencies in the impeding delimitation exercise by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), if the province fails to get more eligible voters registered on the voter’s roll, CITE has established.
To avert this, the Matabeleland South Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Abednico Ncube has urged all stakeholders to encourage eligible voters to register so as to meet the delimitation threshold of plus or minus 20 percent of 26 308 voters per constituency.
“Let’s take off our political jackets and work towards development of this province. The number of registered voters is pathetically low which could lead to merging of some constituencies,” said the provincial affairs minister during a briefing by ZEC at Governor’s boardroom on Wednesday.
Presenting his report during the Provincial Development Committee (PDC) meeting, Zec provincial coordinator, Rabson Nyoni said the province cannot afford to lose more than one constituency hence there is need to get more eligible voters to register.
“Statistics of registered voters in Mat South are shocking. I therefore urge everyone who is eligible to vote to come and register as we will be opening our offices to members of the public tomorrow (1 April).
“Every Zimbabwean who is above 18 years must have his/her name in the voters roll in order to maintain the number of constituencies in the province. Let us encourage those who are based across our borders to come and register even if they are not going to vote.This excercise is very important because that is where the national cake is shared,” said Nyoni.
Statistics at hand revealed that only four out of the 13 constituencies meet the threshold.
These are namely Beitbridge East 34 733, Gwanda Central 27 592, UMzingwane 25 473 and Insiza North 25 858.
However, if the remaining constituencies fail to meet the threshold chances of them being merging are very high.
Bulilima East and West could be merged as they currently have 17 977 and 15 966 voters respectively while Matobo South and North have 15 824 and 19 103 voters respectively.
Mangwe has 18 486 voters, Insiza South 14 664 voters, Gwanda South 15 523 voters, North 16 173 and Beitbridge West has 16 427 voters.
