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Stakeholders demand transparent voter registration

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STAKEHOLDERS involved in electoral issues yesterday demanded a transparent tender system for the engagement of a consultant set to formulate a new voter registration database design.

STAKEHOLDERS involved in electoral issues yesterday demanded a transparent tender system for the engagement of a consultant set to formulate a new voter registration database design.

VENERANDA LANGA

Participants attending a Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) All-Stakeholders’ Conference on Voter Registration in Harare yesterday said there was need to appoint a credible consultant who would come up with an acceptable system that would curb possibilities of voter manipulation.

Zec met different stakeholders to gather input to determine how the new voters’ roll should look like vis-à-vis voter registration, database design, mapping of polling stations, and voter education among other issues.

The electoral body has engaged different participants from political parties, civil society organisations, faith-based organisations, media, academia, government departments, local authorities and traditional leaders, as well as experts from outside the country.

The objective of the conference, which ends today, is to collect stakeholder recommendations on the proposed registration model before it is implemented in time for the 2018 elections.

Director of the Elections Resource Centre Tawanda Chimhini said Zec should also explain to stakeholders if the new proposed registration system meant Zimbabwe was going to have a fresh voters’ roll between now and 2018.

He said the electoral body also needed to explain what was going to happen to the current voters’ roll prepared by the Registrar-General’s Office.

“A lot of young people are concerned about issues of accessibility of voter registration centres and whether voter registration is going to be a continuous process,” Chimhini said.

“We also hope the new proposed voter registration model will solve the problems that were encountered in the previous elections like July 2013.”

Secretary for elections in the MDC-T and Gweru Urban MP Sesel Zvidzai said the proposed voter registration system should solve past problems where a lot of people were turned away because their names were not appearing in the voters’ roll.

“My proposal is a double entry model where a person’s entry is in a database and they also have a voter registration slip,” Zvidzai said.

Representatives from people living with disabilities also proposed that they be consulted when mapping polling stations, voter registration and education were being discussed because they were affected by distances to polling stations, as well as unavailability of voter education data in Braille format.

“We need a disability desk at Zec and a sign language interpreter to address queries and do voter education,” said Ephraim Bhaliya from the Zimbabwe Association for the Deaf.

According to Zec deputy chairperson Joyce Kazembe, the envisaged voter registration model would ensure validity and correctness of information on the voters’ register.

It would also ascertain the identity of a person attempting to register to vote, address aspects of duplication and multiple entries, as well as come up with mechanisms that checked that all data was up to date and any amendments done in good time.

Kazembe said the process would ensure accountability and permit reasonable access to the voters’ roll by political parties, candidates and anyone interested.

“The data will be physically and geographically accessible, even to people with disabilities. It will have completeness in terms of registering all qualified persons including prisoners and those in hospitals and Diaspora, will be responsive to stakeholders’ needs and be current in terms of regular updates on latest information about a voter,” she said.

Brown Kasaro, the deputy director of elections in the Electoral Commission of Zambia, and Hubert Akumiah, an independent consultant from Ghana, both emphasised the need to have continuous voter registration and clarity in ICT systems to be used.