NGOs demand voters roll ahead of delimitation

ELECTION watchdogs have expressed concern over plans by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to go ahead with the delimitation exercise without availing the voters roll.

Zec yesterday released its delimitation roadmap showing that the exercise will be completed by December ahead of the 2023 elections.

Election Resource Centre programmes manager Solomon Bobosibunu said it was worrying that the voters roll had not been made public ahead of the critical exercise  of redrawing electoral boundaries.

"In as far as voter education is concerned we are still worried that Zec has not made the voters roll public as the requirement of the law. We are not asking this out of the blue, it's as per the provisions of the Electoral Act," Bobosibunu said.

Zimbabwe Election Support Network acting executive director Ellen Dingani said: "By way of update it's good, but we also want a two-way process whereby the commission engages civil society and political parties to explain some of the issues it mentioned. "

Zimbabwe Elections Advocacy Trust director Ignatius Sadziwa urged Zec to be transparent when conducting the delimitation exercise.

"The exercise needs to be painstakingly executed. However, the commission must improve on consultations so that the process passes credibility and legitimacy tests," Sadziwa said.

Zec chief elections officer Utoile Silaigwana referred NewsDay to the commission's spokesperson, Jasper Mangwana, who was not picking calls.

In the roadmap, Zec said it would use provincial and district maps with topological features such as mountains, rivers, roads, communication lines, settlements and different types of land use to demarcate constituency boundaries.