Zimbabwe removes over 2 500 dead people from voters' roll

THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has removed the names of 2 529 dead people from the voters' roll, with the list, as usual, published in the Government Gazette with the normal invitation for any objections.

ZEC regularly and routinely removes dead voters from the roll as data from the Registrar-General is made available from the lists of people who have been certified as dead.

The regular housecleaning is done to ensure that no one can try and vote using identity particulars belonging to a dead person who they might physically resemble, although ID cards are supposed to be handed in to the authorities when a death is reported.

The latest list of the dead voters was published under General Notice 571A of 2023 in the Government Gazette published on Wednesday by ZEC chief elections officer Mr Utloile Silaigwana.

Apart from publishing the names and national identity numbers of the dead voters, Mr Silaigwana also published the constituencies, wards and polling stations they were registered under.

Objections have to come from the actual person listed as dead, and the form the objector needs to fill in not only requires identity details but also a declaration of the willingness of that person to appear before a magistrate to have their living status as the possessor of ID particulars of the mistakenly listed deceased confirmed.

It is almost unheard of for a mistaken notification of death to be recorded, but the Electoral Act requires the formal gazetted notice with the invitation for objections.

Mr Silaigwana said the electoral body adhered to its constitutional mandate and always removed names of dead people from the voters' roll once their deaths were brought to the attention of the Commission.

The removal of deceased persons is a continuous process that the Commission has always been doing when it receives a list of deceased persons from the Registrar General.