Opinion / Columnist
'Conduct a third mobile voter registration blitz' ZEC told
06 May 2022 at 17:32hrs | Views
EkhayaVote2023 takes note of the BVR blitz Phase 2 statistics released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and celebrates its volunteers who operated in Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South Provinces under the #SaveConstituencies Campaign where a plethora of voter mobilisation activities were conducted to educate citizens on the nexus between service delivery and elections.
As at 30 April, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) released statics on the turnout of voter registrations during phase two of the mobile biometric voter registration Blitz before deduplication. Out of a total of (109405), 59904 are males while 49501 are females. According to Provinces voter registration turnout where as follows: Bulawayo (12377), Harare (36800), Manicaland (8668), Mashonaland Central (5877), Mashonaland East (9791), Mashonaland West (8566), Masvingo (10572), Ma-tabeleland North (4079), Matabeleland South (4993) and Midlands (7682).
The daily updates during the blitz highlighted various issues around electoral fatigue, knowledge gaps and increased focus on livelihoods or means for survival at the expense of civic participation.
We appreciate our partnership with ZEC in providing voter education material, tags and radio programs that interfaced the commission with citizens.
#EkhayaVote2023 also made efforts to observe the IDs Blitz and noted that the Registrar Office identity documents blitz also contributed immensely to the voter registration drive.
In light of the bottlenecks and several challenges noted during voter registration exercise, we kindly make recommendations below:
• We implore the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to conduct a third mobile registration blitz to compensate for people who were unable to register in the 1st blitz and 2nd blitz because they did not have national identity documents.
• We urge the Registrar General's Office to deploy more personnel at the outreach centres to deal with long queues and issues of limited numbers of citizen documents processed on a daily basis that has reportedly slowed down the process.
• We encourage a waiver on some citizens such as those with foreign ancestral roots and those affected by Gukurahundi to allow them to acquire their identity documents during this outreach period in line with the Presidential sentiments made when he met CSQs in Matabeleland.
- ZEC to continue responding to requests for information by citizens and other stakeholders by devising a responsive mechanism for citizens to file their enquiries and get assistance expeditiously.
As EkhayaVote2023, we are delighted to see Bulawayo register the highest percentage gain of newly registered voters. Bulawayo went into exercise as the province with the lowest registered voters per estimated population - 47.7%.
We would like to thank CSOs for working tirelessly during this period despite many challenges. However, more should be done to get citizens registered especially the youth and females.
EkhayaVote2023 is a coalition of over 30 Civil Society Organisations working in Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South.
As at 30 April, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) released statics on the turnout of voter registrations during phase two of the mobile biometric voter registration Blitz before deduplication. Out of a total of (109405), 59904 are males while 49501 are females. According to Provinces voter registration turnout where as follows: Bulawayo (12377), Harare (36800), Manicaland (8668), Mashonaland Central (5877), Mashonaland East (9791), Mashonaland West (8566), Masvingo (10572), Ma-tabeleland North (4079), Matabeleland South (4993) and Midlands (7682).
The daily updates during the blitz highlighted various issues around electoral fatigue, knowledge gaps and increased focus on livelihoods or means for survival at the expense of civic participation.
We appreciate our partnership with ZEC in providing voter education material, tags and radio programs that interfaced the commission with citizens.
#EkhayaVote2023 also made efforts to observe the IDs Blitz and noted that the Registrar Office identity documents blitz also contributed immensely to the voter registration drive.
In light of the bottlenecks and several challenges noted during voter registration exercise, we kindly make recommendations below:
• We implore the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to conduct a third mobile registration blitz to compensate for people who were unable to register in the 1st blitz and 2nd blitz because they did not have national identity documents.
• We encourage a waiver on some citizens such as those with foreign ancestral roots and those affected by Gukurahundi to allow them to acquire their identity documents during this outreach period in line with the Presidential sentiments made when he met CSQs in Matabeleland.
- ZEC to continue responding to requests for information by citizens and other stakeholders by devising a responsive mechanism for citizens to file their enquiries and get assistance expeditiously.
As EkhayaVote2023, we are delighted to see Bulawayo register the highest percentage gain of newly registered voters. Bulawayo went into exercise as the province with the lowest registered voters per estimated population - 47.7%.
We would like to thank CSOs for working tirelessly during this period despite many challenges. However, more should be done to get citizens registered especially the youth and females.
EkhayaVote2023 is a coalition of over 30 Civil Society Organisations working in Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South.
Source - EkhayaVote2023
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