ZEC must ensure that all eligible Zimbabweans are able to register to vote

Tobaiwa Mudede, the Registrar - General, on Tuesday, August 29, 2017, announced that beginning from Monday, September 4, 2017, his office will roll out a three - month national mobile registration exercise for national identity cards, birth and death certificates in preparation for voter registration. More importantly, the Registrar - General announced that metal national identity cards are being phased out and that only those people with machine - readable plastics IDs will be able to register as voters.

The MDC sincerely hopes that this three - month mobile registration exercise shall be equitably distributed throughout the country's urban, rural, peri - urban and commercial farming areas. On numerous occasions, Zimbabweans, particularly those who live in urban areas, have complained about the long delays in queues for voter registration, which state of affairs has unfortunately contributed to voter apathy in these areas. The planned national mobile registration exercise should, thus, be designed in such a manner that no eligible person would fail to obtain the new machine - readable national ID. Millions of Zimbabweans, in both rural and urban areas, are still holding onto their metal national IDs and it is, therefore, incumbent upon the Office of the Registrar - General, to make sure that this exercise is efficiently and effectively rolled out countrywide.

It is a notorious fact that Tobaiwa Mudede has previously been linked with allegations of aiding and abetting the Zanu PF regime's vote rigging shenanigans. Perhaps rightly so, Zimbabweans somehow believe that there could be a sinister motive behind the Registrar - General's planned move to roll out the national mobile registration exercise at this juncture. The MDC shall remain vigilant to ensure that Mudede and people of his ilk are not allowed to hoodwink the toiling masses of Zimbabwe by designing and facilitating an election rigging exercise under the guise of a national mobile registration program. The Zanu PF regime, together with Tobaiwa Mudede, cannot be easily trusted. They have a chequered record that makes the majority of the people extremely suspicious about the exact intentions of the planned national mobile registration exercise.

We would also like to call upon Zimbabweans, particularly the youth, to make sure that they obtain the new machine - readable national IDs. The 2018 elections offer the suppressed and impoverished masses of Zimbabwe a unique opportunity to boot the insipidly corrupt and hopelessly incompetent Zanu PF regime out of power for good. The future of our great country is firmly in our hands and never again should we allow the renegade and despotic Zanu PF regime, fronted by Robert Mugabe, to usurp our basic and fundamental human rights as well as to loot and plunder our God - given natural resources.

MDC: EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL