THE two MDC parties yesterday lashed out at Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede for reducing the voter registration and inspection period to three days per ward instead of the mandatory 30 days, describing the move as tantamount to “rigging” the forthcoming elections.
Report by Moses Matenga
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC- T said the move by Mudede was “suspicious”.
The party said the development was a way to “oil the rigging machinery” while the Welshman Ncube-led MDC described the move as “sad”.
“Mudede’s illegal move is nothing, but a fraud meant to assist the rigging machinery of a panic-stricken Zanu PF,” the MDC-T said.
“In areas which Mudede wittingly perceives to be Zanu PF strongholds, he has created more registration centres while in some areas which he perceives to be MDC strongholds, very few centres have been established. . . . The MDC demands that the RG’s Office and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) unconditionally move this process to the wards.”
MDC-T secretary for elections Sesel Zvidzai said: “We are not happy at all. What he (Mudede) is doing is mischievous. He is doing three-day registration per ward instead of the 30-day period and that is not in the spirit of the law and definitely not respecting the Constitution.”
The MDC-T said there were fears that the consequences of a bungled voters’ roll would be a disputed election result that would not be approved by Sadc and the African Union — both guarantors of the Global Political Agreement which gave birth to the inclusive government.
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“Because of the bungling of the voter registration exercise, the MDC is now in doubt whether Zec can truly be expected to organise an election that complies with all the provisions of the new Constitution,” Zvidzai said.
The MDC-T questioned why in a constituency like Hatfield held by the party there was not a single registration centre, while in Harare South constituency, which is held by Zanu PF, four centres had been established.
MDC spokesperson Nhlanhla Dube said: “It’s sad really, but we would like to urge people to go out and register to vote instead of sitting back and just complain.”
Zec chairperson Justice Rita Makarau told Parliament yesterday that a 30-day ward-based registration was not possible due to financial constraints, but the cluster strategy was that they would visit every ward.
“If there are wards left out, we will look at it to ensure they are visited. We will monitor progress after one week,” she said.
