By Correspondent
Many Zimbabweans trashed the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) handling of past elections, arguing that it disenfranchised many people.
The citizens were speaking during the recently ended Constitutional Amendment Bill No.3 public hearings.
According to many, ZEC failed dismally in terms of managing voter registration and the delimitation exercise.
This resulted in many failing to vote.
ZEC, which manages elections, also conducts voter registration and delimitation of constituency and ward boundaries.
CAB3 has however put a proposal to withdraw some of those duties and give them to a new Zimbabwe Delimitation Commission.
Trail of Failure
However, speaking about its past work many had no kind words for ZEC as they justified their support for the proposed changes.
Former Chegutu West legislator Dexter Nduna said his constituency almost lost a ward due ZEC’s incompetence with the delimitation exercise.
“The delimitation exercise that was done the last time by ZEC, which was also doing voter registration, did not end well.
“Chegutu West constituency, almost lost Ward 25.”I had to stand up as MP for the area, and they ended up returning it.
“If they (ZEC) focus on elections, then others focus on voter registration and delimitation, that will help us greatly,’’ he said.
Another citizen told the Parliamentary Committee that when ZEC was doing voter registration, a lot of people failed to register to vote.
“When ZEC was doing voter registration, a lot of people would fail to reach the voter registration centres and miss the opportunity to be registered.
“But with the Registrar-General, it will be easy because they have all the records of births and deaths in the country.
“They issue birth certificates, national identity cards, and death certificates.
“These are all the things that are required for one to be registered, or deregistered, so it will be easy for the Registrar-General,’’ he said.
Complaints From Citizens
Merjury Guzha told the committee that removing the voter registration responsibility from ZEC will go a long way in preventing electoral theft in the country.
“Voters’ roll should be moved from ZEC to the Registrar-General, to prevent election theft, where dead people were also being found among those that would have voted.
“Registrar-General is the only person who knows the truth about dead and living people and can automatically add or remove them from the voters’ roll,” she said.
Clemence Dhliwayo weighed in, arguing that time has shown that ZEC cannot be doing many roles.
He said it must focus on its major role of election management.
“ZEC should leave issues of boundaries and focus on election management.
“They cannot be everywhere and anywhere,’’ he said.
Josias Nyaruwe said he supports #CAB3 because it is proposing to transfer the voter registration exercise to the Registrar-General.
Nyaruwe added that the Registrar-General is the only person who knows everyone from the highest to the lowest ranking in the country.
“Voter registration should go back to the Registrar-General’s office.
“He or she is the only one who knows everyone from the lowest person to the highest ranking person in the country.
“They automatically know when a person has been born or has died through issuance of birth certificates and death certificates.
“With ZEC it (voter registration) was difficult. “They needed a lot of money to come up with the voters’ roll,’’ he said.
The issues raised by citizens are the same as those opposition parties have consistently cited.
Movement for Democratic Change-T, Citizens Coalition for Change, and Movement for Democratic Change-N, among others, have been complaining about this in the past 10 years.
The same voter registration issues have also been mentioned in several election reports by election observers, both local and foreign.
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