Opinion / Columnist
Mudede tells Rita Makarau to abandon the biometric voter registration
01 Sep 2017 at 22:25hrs | Views
Rita Makarau, chairperson of ZEC will announce that the biometric voter registration and verification technology will not be used for 2018 watershed general elections. Rita will defend her decision by implying that the challenges of using biometric technology in the current Zimbabwe harsh economic conditions is an impediment for a successful launch of biometric voter registration and verification technology for use in 2018 general elections.
Rita will announce that her commission had overlooked the complications and difficulties associated with the procurement processes of the biometric voter registration technology. She will come out telling the electorate that the procurement process of biometric voter registration equipment and software is lengthy and involves a complex data processing exercise making it impossible to produce the biometric voter registration list in time for the 2018 general elections.
Rita will further tell the public that to implement the biometric voter registration a legal framework has be in place as the current legal frame work for this purpose is questionable and poses opportunities for litigation.
She will continue to say that her commission did not have enough time to run a proper feasibility study adding that she is worried that the country did not need to be carried away by the perception that biometric voter registration and verification is a silver bullet to all electoral problems.
Rita will put forward an argument that she will not use the biometric voter registration and verification technology as her commission has not been allocated enough funding by government to ensure a successful implementation of the exercise. She might even say that there won't be enough time for trials of the system and that she is unsure if there is in place contingency plans to fall back on should the system breakdown during the voting process. Rita will attempt to get out of the problem by insinuating that there has not been an in depth feasibility studies and that she does not even know if the technology is going to solve the problem of multiple voting apart from the fact that she has only read about it. Rita will say that she will not proceed using the biometric voter registration and verification technology because of the lack of highly qualified software maintenance engineers, electronic networking technicians and biometric data programmers.
Rita will deliberately ignore to say that her commission lacks effective organisational structures or that it is being influenced by ZANU PF in the work it does. She will retort by saying that she is not being pressured by ZANU PF to abandon the biometric voters' registration and verification technology for reasons to rig the elections. She will dispute that ZANU PF does not have the political will to implement the biometric voters' registration and verification technology covering it up for its practice of multiple voting fraud.
She will say that it is the independent decision by her commission to abandon the use of the biometric voters' registration and verification technology, a simple ploy to protect the little integrity that is now left of her. The whole idea by Tobaiwa Mudede to confuse people that they will not be able to vote using the metal identity cards is to remove a better and comprehensive BVR verification process so as allow him to manipulate the voters roll to give a win to ZANU PF.
Rita will announce that her commission had overlooked the complications and difficulties associated with the procurement processes of the biometric voter registration technology. She will come out telling the electorate that the procurement process of biometric voter registration equipment and software is lengthy and involves a complex data processing exercise making it impossible to produce the biometric voter registration list in time for the 2018 general elections.
Rita will further tell the public that to implement the biometric voter registration a legal framework has be in place as the current legal frame work for this purpose is questionable and poses opportunities for litigation.
Rita will put forward an argument that she will not use the biometric voter registration and verification technology as her commission has not been allocated enough funding by government to ensure a successful implementation of the exercise. She might even say that there won't be enough time for trials of the system and that she is unsure if there is in place contingency plans to fall back on should the system breakdown during the voting process. Rita will attempt to get out of the problem by insinuating that there has not been an in depth feasibility studies and that she does not even know if the technology is going to solve the problem of multiple voting apart from the fact that she has only read about it. Rita will say that she will not proceed using the biometric voter registration and verification technology because of the lack of highly qualified software maintenance engineers, electronic networking technicians and biometric data programmers.
Rita will deliberately ignore to say that her commission lacks effective organisational structures or that it is being influenced by ZANU PF in the work it does. She will retort by saying that she is not being pressured by ZANU PF to abandon the biometric voters' registration and verification technology for reasons to rig the elections. She will dispute that ZANU PF does not have the political will to implement the biometric voters' registration and verification technology covering it up for its practice of multiple voting fraud.
She will say that it is the independent decision by her commission to abandon the use of the biometric voters' registration and verification technology, a simple ploy to protect the little integrity that is now left of her. The whole idea by Tobaiwa Mudede to confuse people that they will not be able to vote using the metal identity cards is to remove a better and comprehensive BVR verification process so as allow him to manipulate the voters roll to give a win to ZANU PF.
Source - Themba Mthethwa
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