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By Gilbert Munetsi
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has added its voice to the need for Treasury to resource the Civil Registry to enable the smooth flow of voter registration ahead of impending elections.
The country is scheduled to hold by-elections to fill in vacant council and House of Assembly seats during the first quarter of 2022 and, subsequently, harmonised elections in 2023.
The call by ZESN – a civic elections and democracy mouthpiece – comes against the background of an announcement by the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) earlier this month that it has been compelled to postpone the mobile voter registration process that is supposed to have been conducted between Dec 6, 2021- Feb 2022.
The reason given by the electoral body is that the Registrar General’s office is incapacitated financially to be able to issue birth certificates and national identity cards which make it possible for people to register to vote.
“The network reiterates its call to Government to avail adequate resources to the Civil Registry’s office to enable them to procure the necessary materials needed for processing national documents,” ZESN said in a statement Friday.
The organisation implored the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage to take heed of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s recent call at a rally in Gokwe for the decentralisation of national documents acquisitions.
According to ZESN, the most affected by the latest development are the young people and citizens who have lost their IDs and are now finding it difficult to get them for the first time or replacing them.
“Given that young people constitute the biggest demographic group in Zimbabwe, their participation in elections is critical as democracy is essentially about the participation of the majority,” said ZESN.
The sentiments echo those by other pressure groups which include the Election Resource Centre and a campaign called MyRightToVote.
The former, in a statement early this week, argued:
“Voter registration is arguably one of the most important pre-election activities as it ensures equitable participation in elections, enhances voter turnout and impacts on the delimitation of constituency boundaries.” Nhau/Indaba
