55 375 assisted to vote in Masvingo

A TOTAL of 55 375 people in Masvingo province were assisted to vote in Monday's elections due to illiteracy and different disabilities.

Of the number, 14 410 were males and 40 964 females.

Deputy provincial elections officer, Maxwell Dube said Mwenezi East had the highest number of assisted voters at 6 190, while Masvingo Urban had 421.

"Illiteracy was the main reason why a lot of voters were assisted. Of course, they were others who were visually-impaired and others physically-challenged, but the main reason for a lot of people being turned away was the issue of illiteracy," Dube said.

"We recorded a total of 512 649 voters who voted in the province with 217 032 males and 295 617 females. Masvingo Urban had the highest number of voters while Zaka East had a low turnout with 12 009 voters."

He said 8 667 people were turned away, the reasons including lack of identity cards, invalid documents, defaced IDs while others were not on the voters' roll.

Dube said the election went smoothly despite challenges of communication at various polling stations.