Mudede's voter's roll most corrupted- Sikhala

MDC-T official Job Wiwa Sikhala has said there is no doubt that Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede's voter's roll is the most corrupted document across the world.

"There is no doubt the Tobaiwa Mudede Voter's Roll is the most corrupted one in the whole world. It has a lot of its imperfections that are insurmountable. The need for a new Voters Roll is as logical as having elections on a new slate," he said.

"My worry is that the new Voter registration system that is coming in May has more of its serious imperfections. The registration will be Biometric. That is the electronic capture of the voter with specific features to avoid double or multiple voting. The registration will be polling station based. This means that a voter is registered at a polling station which he or she will vote. For example, at the same school there might be two or four polling stations ie Polling Stations A to D. You must identify the polling station you would want to vote at among those at the same premises."

Sikhala said that is a polling station where one's details and features must be captured.

"A polling station will know in advance the names and number of people to vote on the voting day. Data capturing as we are failing to unlock the deployment of state security agents in the employ of the Zimbabwe Election Commission(ZEC) will be conducted by members of the CIO, military and police who are in the employ of the Elections Commission. We risk the following; That known opposition supporters may have their names deliberately omitted from the final roll," he said.

"That the security agents in the employ of ZEC, will just translate the ZANU PF electronic membership data record and translate it into the national Voters Roll.
That our rural colleagues will be intimidated into believing that the capture of their data at a particular polling station which they will vote means that they will be known their voting preferences."

Sikhala said this is very possible because if a particular polling station has 50 registered voters and 37 of them votes for an opposition candidate, it is highly possible in the sparsely populated rural set up to identify those who could have voted for the opposition.

"That is where my worry is. Voting is all about the secrecy of the ballot. When the secrecy of the ballot is no longer guaranteed in such circumstances it becomes a no election at all. The arguments for such registration system has been that it avoids the voter from moving from one polling station to the other to vote several times in the same elections, but its lopsided effects outweighs the benefits," he said.

"That the polling station registration system has an expeditious and efficient character. It is argued that it takes the maximum of a minute to identify the name of the voter and for the voter to cast his or her vote. This according to the promoters of the polling station voting system argue that it will give an opportunity to every registered voter to exercise his or her right to vote."

He said this can be true as the challenges in many elections that he participated and observed was the frustration of the voter.

"The voter would made to wait for hours to cast the vote. Some would walk away after two to three hours of waiting. My worry, as expressed is when the secrecy of the vote not guaranteed. Lets debate the pros and cons of the forthcoming voters registration system," he said.