Dube urges Zimbabweans to assist in removing ghost voters

JOHANNESBURG - MDC-SA Province has urged Zimbabweans who have their dead relatives on the voters' roll to assist in removing them by reporting them to the Registrar General's Office with immediate effect to help avoid vote rigging.

Latest media reports say Registrar General's office and C.I.Os are busy entering names of Zimbabweans who signed the anti-sanction petition unlawfully.

"It is high time the voters roll is cleaned. First we need everyone with his or her dead relative still on voters roll to help remove him by reporting it to the office of Tobaiwa Mudede. This is a serious issue which needs urgent attention, wherever you are try to make sure that you help clean the voters roll for a free and fair election,' said MDC-SA Provincial chairman, Leonard Dube.

Five months ago, Youth Forum's National Coordinator Wellington Zindove also raised anxiety that allowing 'dead people' to remain in the voters roll is akin to allowing them to vote in the upcoming harmonised general elections expected this year which is tantamount to rigging.

"Citizens must not only focus on registering, but checking names of their dead relatives in the voters roll. We need a clear voters roll, all departed people must be removed instantly. The question 'Do dead people's votes make any difference and if so, how much difference? As the Youth Forum we believe every vote counts, but only if it is a legal vote. Allowing dead people to remain in the voters roll is equal to broad daily robbery. Whether it's one person or a million people, each single vote will make a huge difference. This issue must be taken seriously without fail," Zindove was emphatically quoted.

In the past, Zimbabwean opposition parties and civic groups warned that unless the voters' roll is reviewed by an independent body, the credibility of the many general elections could be called into question.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)'s Deputy Chairperson, Joyce Kazembe Deputy-Chairperson, was also quoted in the media reports last year saying "dead people are not removed from the voters roll if nobody goes and register them as dead because the Registrar General has no legal authority to remove anyone until somebody comes with an affidavit that this person is dead." The last time voters' roll was opened for inspection the country had 5,658,637 eligible voters, according to the registrar-general's office.

Both factions of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change remain adamant and threatened to boycott the elections unless government agrees to reform of the electoral process in accordance with the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) guidelines, which include the appointment of an independent electoral commission. However, the adamant Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede has continued in defending his department, saying: "Those questioning the accuracy of the roll are free to go and inspect it, with the rest of the country, during the inspection period."