'No e-voting in Zimbabwe's 2018 elections,' says Makarau

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is not intending to use e-voting in the 2018 harmonised elections although it is intending to procure biometric registration kits to register voters.

In an interview, ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau said the biometric kits being acquired by government will only be used to capture the usual identity details plus the finger prints in order to improve the credibility of the voters roll and avoid disputed election results.

Biometric voter registration (BVR) is expected to capture voters' unique biometric features, specifically fingerprints and facial imaging which will be recorded in a database.

When voters check in at their respective polling stations (which will be the same stations they register at) in 2018 these same features will be used to verify if they are part of the voters roll, thereby eliminating ghost voters and increasing the voters' roll's accuracy.

Government last week announced that it has secured funding for the purchase of biometric kits and the State Procurement Board (SPB) is in the process of finding suppliers. Initially, the UNDP had offered to fund the equipment.