Mudede's Office to open during elections

The Registrar-General's Office will be opened from today till Monday to assist members of the public who lost their national identity documents to obtain new ones to be able to vote during the harmonised elections.

According to the RG's Office, this was mainly for registered voters. Addressing a Press conference in Harare, Registrar-General Mr Tobaiwa Mudede said this was not unique to this year's election, but has been done in previous elections. He said they were aware that a lot of people could have lost their national identity cards and that was the reason why they will remain open throughout the weekend.

"This serves to inform the public that the offices of the Registrar General; i.e Central Registry, Provincial and District Offices will remain open for issuance of lost, misplaced or defaced identity documents and confirmation of citizenship (where necessary)," he said.

"These services will be extended to all registered voters to facilitate voting on the polling day." He said today and tomorrow, the offices will be opened between 0700 hours and 1600 hours while on Monday from 0700 hours to 1900 hours. Mr Mudede added that members of the public should be aware that the sub offices will not be open during this period.

In April this year, the Registrar-General's Office embarked on a one-month national civil registration mop-up exercise for people to acquire identity documents ahead of harmonised elections.

This came after the RG's Office conducted an extensive mobile registration, which began in September last year and ended on January 31 this year. The department was focusing on registration of national identity cards and birth and death certificates. Citizens by descent were also being covered during the mop-up period.

Mr Tobaiwa Mudede was quoted saying the documents were required to facilitate the registration of voters in preparation for the forthcoming harmonised elections. He said documents to be covered during the registration included "national identity cards, birth certificates, death certificates and citizens by descent (person born outside Zimbabwe one of whose parents is a citizen by birth)."

He said the desired personal documents would be issued free of charge.

The RG's Office was also urging those with metal identity cards to change to polythene-synthetic identity cards. Contrary to misconceptions by opposition parties and private media, metal identity cards remain valid and authentic. The RG's Office said if the metal identity cards were to become invalid, the department would issue a statutory instrument to that effect.