LOCAL pressure group, Concerned Citizen Support Network of Zimbabwe (CCSNZ), says it has started deploying campaign teams throughout the country to conduct voter registration awareness campaigns targeting at least 50 people per ward in preparation for next year’s general elections.
By NQOBANI NDLOVU
CCSNZ director, Assan Mtembo recently told Southern Eye that they were deploying an average of 20 people per constituency after realising that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) was taking too long to carry out the exercise.
He said his teams would work hand-in-glove with political parties affiliated to the National Electoral Reform Agenda.
“We are targeting to deploy an average of 20 people per constituency with a target of talking to 50 people per day. Thus on average it needs three weeks to cover a constituency.
“The process involved training them on the voter education system so that they understand we need to bring awareness of the new voters’ role that is coming up,” Mtembo said.
“On funding, we have managed to get citizens who are volunteering to do voter education and self-funding themselves together with some citizens supporting the cause. We are going down to the grass roots and using a constituency approach.”
Recently, civic groups under the umbrella Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiCZ) questioned Zec’s commitment to roll out a voter awareness exercise in line with its constitutional mandate, saying the process is long overdue.
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The Constitution, under functions of ZEC on Article 239 (h) provides for voter education, stating that the electoral body should conduct and supervise it.
The CiCZ said it was concerned ZEC had not carried out the exercise, or let alone mentioned when it will roll it out after announcing Chinese firm, Laxton Group Limited as the winner of a tender on bio-metric voter registration.
