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VP Mujuru finds only 9 voters on roll

Politics
Vice-President Joice Mujuru was shocked last week after she discovered that only nine people from her home village in Mt Darwin were on the voters' roll

DEPUTY Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara yesterday admitted that the voters’ roll was in such a mess that Vice-President Joice Mujuru was also shocked last week after she discovered that only nine people from her home village in Mt Darwin were on the roll.

REPORT BY VENERANDA LANGA

Mutambara made the remarks in the House of Assembly after Mutare South MP Freddie Kanzama (Zanu PF) demanded to know what the Executive was doing to resolve the chaos.

“There has been confusion created in the country where the voters’ roll of 2008 has been distorted by people being removed and thus creating chaos,” said Mutambara.

“A whole minister who was elected into Parliament in 2008 found themselves no longer on the voters’ roll and the Vice-President in her own village went to inspect the voters’ roll and found only nine people were registered,” he said.

Mujuru, of Zanu PF, was elected MP for Mt Darwin West in 2008 after garnering more than 13 000 votes.

Mutambara said the new constitution, which was signed into law yesterday by President Robert Mugabe, would resolve the problem as it would afford first-time voters and so-called aliens to register as voters.

He also disclosed government did not have the money to finance the voter registration exercise, adding dates for the next election would only be proclaimed after certain processes had been completed.

“We have to look at the laws that guide how we carry out elections and our lawyers will help us read our old and new constitution to see what they say in terms of when we hold elections. We also have to take into account that we are in an inclusive government due to that our last elections were inconclusive,” said Mutambara.

“We must look at the political environment so that we create a situation of freeness and fairness of elections and so that when elections are done the loser congratulates the winner. We also need to make sure we do things that do not bring us into disrepute with Sadc and the AU.”

Magunje MP Franco Ndambakuwa also alleged churches like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventist and Methodist Church were barring their members from voting, but Mutambara said participation in national processes was an individual choice.

“We cannot allow institutions to stop citizens from exercising their rights to vote. People should make that decision individually,” he said.