VOTER registration centres in some rural areas are being used as campaign bases by suspected Zanu PF aspiring candidates where people registering to vote are given material bribes including money.
REPORT BY VENERANDA LANGA
This was observed at Zvamapere Secondary School registration centre in Chivi North during a visit by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs on Wednesday.
The committee was accompanied by a delegation from the Southern African Parliamentary Support Trust touring different provinces to inspect and monitor how the voter registration exercise was being conducted. It was observed that after registration, people had their names taken by a teacher.
Asked why their names were being taken down, villagers disclosed that Zanu PF Chivi North MP Tranos Huruva had promised them $1 each for registering as voters.
“Huruva said we should have our names written down after registering so that we get $1 each,” one villager said. “He is campaigning.”
Huruva denied that the “philanthropic” act had anything to do with vote buying, but said he was assisting hungry people in his constituency.
“This is my constituency and I felt pity for these women because they said they were hungry. I am giving them $1 each so that they can buy something to eat and it has nothing to do with vote buying,” he said.
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Some women even approached Huruva to enquire about the $1 in front of the visiting delegation. Some aspirants in Manicaland province were observed this week providing food to villagers to entice them to register and vote for them.
Meanwhile, voter registration appeared to be going on smoothly in some parts of Masvingo Province, with Provincial Registrar Sithembeni Chitsa telling MPs they were well equipped with cameras and generators at every ward.
“We have seven districts, Bikita, Chiredzi, Chivi, Masvingo, Gutu, Mwenezi and Zaka and we deployed 28 teams with four teams in each district. There is a rise in statistics with more than 32 000 people now appearing on the voters’ roll with 18 000 registered as first time voters.”
