News / National
ZESN claim that Dead People Make Up 27 'Per Cent' Of Zim Voters' Roll
21 Jan 2011 at 13:25hrs | Views
An electoral pressure group has made startling revelations of how deceased people still make up 27 percent of the country's voters' roll.
The findings are contained in the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) Voters Roll Observation audit report launched in Harare Thursday.
"...27 percent of voters registered in the voters' roll were deceased," noted the report compiled last November. "The computer test revealed 2344 people born between 1901 and 1909 aged between 101 and 110 years old. It also revealed 9 people born between 1890 and 1900 aged between 111 and 120 years old."
The voters roll audit was meant to assess the quality of the voters' roll in Zimbabwe testing the accuracy, currency and completeness of the voters' roll and make recommendations for the cleanup of the roll.
The audit was carried out in 102 wards of the country's 2000 wards.
The report's findings concluded that there was a 6,35 'per cent' increase in the number of registered voters between 2008 and 2010. This translated into a 52 percent male registration and 48 percent registration of women yet 52 'per cent' of the country's population were females.
Only 18 'per cent' of youth voters were registered in the period leading up to the 2008 elections. Forty-one 'per cent' of registered voters were no longer residing at the addresses listed in the voters' roll.
The report also highlighted that there were dissatisfactions among respondents in the manner in which the voter registration process was conducted. Complaints centred on the tedious requirement of providing proof of residence particularly for urban voters most of whom were lodgers. This resulted in the disenfranchisement of many urban voters.
In its recommendations ZESN called for the drawing up of a new voters' roll in Zimbabwe which will help improve currency, accuracy and completeness of the voters roll.
It said this should be done in a transparent manner to make sure that such processes as the deletion of names from the voters' roll is not left to constituency registrars alone. This, it said, should be done in tandem with a vigorous voter education campaign to educate citizens on procedures of how to register, transfer, object, claim and facilitate deletion of dead voters.
The findings are contained in the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) Voters Roll Observation audit report launched in Harare Thursday.
"...27 percent of voters registered in the voters' roll were deceased," noted the report compiled last November. "The computer test revealed 2344 people born between 1901 and 1909 aged between 101 and 110 years old. It also revealed 9 people born between 1890 and 1900 aged between 111 and 120 years old."
The voters roll audit was meant to assess the quality of the voters' roll in Zimbabwe testing the accuracy, currency and completeness of the voters' roll and make recommendations for the cleanup of the roll.
The audit was carried out in 102 wards of the country's 2000 wards.
The report's findings concluded that there was a 6,35 'per cent' increase in the number of registered voters between 2008 and 2010. This translated into a 52 percent male registration and 48 percent registration of women yet 52 'per cent' of the country's population were females.
Only 18 'per cent' of youth voters were registered in the period leading up to the 2008 elections. Forty-one 'per cent' of registered voters were no longer residing at the addresses listed in the voters' roll.
The report also highlighted that there were dissatisfactions among respondents in the manner in which the voter registration process was conducted. Complaints centred on the tedious requirement of providing proof of residence particularly for urban voters most of whom were lodgers. This resulted in the disenfranchisement of many urban voters.
In its recommendations ZESN called for the drawing up of a new voters' roll in Zimbabwe which will help improve currency, accuracy and completeness of the voters roll.
It said this should be done in a transparent manner to make sure that such processes as the deletion of names from the voters' roll is not left to constituency registrars alone. This, it said, should be done in tandem with a vigorous voter education campaign to educate citizens on procedures of how to register, transfer, object, claim and facilitate deletion of dead voters.
Source - Byo24News
