THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) is calling on the electorate and political parties to have faith in the electoral management body’s capacity to run free, fair and credible elections .
BY TALENT GUMPO
Speaking at a Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) conference on working towards credible and peaceful harmonised elections on Wednesday, Zec commissioner, Qhubani Moyo said the electoral body has made an effort to clean the voters’ roll, as it is the basis for a credible election.
“In previous years, the country has faced the problem of having a shambolic voters’ roll which was unclear of the number of the people who were registered to vote, a voters’ roll that many people said had people that are deceased,” he said.
“A voters’ roll is a very crucial document for the purposes of a free, fair and credible election. It is a key starting point that defines, who is going to vote and the number of people who are going to vote.
A shambolic voters’ role equals a shambolic election and a credible voters’ roll is a very strong basis for a credible election.”
Moyo said the commission had come up with a new voters’ roll when the registration powers were taken away from Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede’s office after the realisation they could not patch up the old roll.
“Zec grabbed the opportunity and after realising that it was crucial for it to clean the voters’ roll and realised that to try and patch the voters’ roll that was there would not help us in any way, we reached a decision that we need to come up with a new voters’ roll and concluded that we will do a biometric voter registration system,” he said.
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Moyo said the whole concept was to ensure that we have a credible voters’ roll that meets certain requirements and standards that has integrity and is free from political manipulation.
He said the voters’ roll would be accessible to all contesting political parties.
“The voter’s roll will be made available to all contesting political parties, an important development that has previously been a source of conflict and they [political parties] will also witness the printing of the ballot papers, which will be done by a local company.”
Moyo urged the public to judge Zec according to its current efforts and milestones not past deeds.
