The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has been urged to deal with the issue of dead people appearing in the voters’ roll when implementing the new voter registration model it has proposed.
VENERANDA LANGA Staff REPORTER
Different stakeholders drawn from civic society groups, religious organisations, political parties, and women’s groups and people living with disabilities yesterday called for behaviour change by the electoral body if the perception that it was politically biased is to end.
Stakeholders also said they wanted to see their recommendations being implemented by ZEC come voting time.
Zimbabwe Development Party president Kisinoti Mukwazhe said it was imperative for ZEC to include all stakeholders in all processes. He said political parties should contribute their views on how they wanted the new voter registration model to look like instead of crying foul during elections.
“ZEC should desist from behaving like politicians who prefer to go to war first and negotiate for a ceasefire later, and they should interact with all stakeholders before implementation of the new model,” Mukwazhe said.
“Political parties should contribute and make recommendations so that we do not make serious allegations that elections were rigged because the voter’s roll was in shambles.”
Zimbabwe Chiefs Council president Fortune Charumbira said it was imperative for ZEC to liaise with headmen, chiefs and churches to help gather information about dead people who end up appearing in the voters’ roll.
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“To be able to know who is deceased one would insist on a death certificate but less than 10% of people who die in rural areas are buried with death certificates.
“We cannot solely rely on technology to remove names of dead people from the voters’ roll, but need headmen, church leaders and chiefs to assist,” Charumbira said.
Sibusisiwe Marunda of Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe said gender mainstreaming should be included in voter education so that educators were well informed about specific gender needs such as giving preference to pregnant and lactating women, and the disabled in long voting queues.
“Physical accessibility of inspection centres for people living with disability should include ramps, Braille facilities and disability sensitive queue management,” Marunda said.
Zimbabwe Elections Support Network director Rindai Chitsinde said civic society organisations should monitor the process, adding there should not be cherry picking of civil society organisations who will conduct voter education.
ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau said her organisation was committed to ensuring mistakes of the past were not repeated.
“We do not want a repeat of what happened in the past and we are trying by all means to address all those anomalies by including recommendations by all stakeholders,” Makarau said.
