BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA
The upcoming delimitation exercise is likely to affect Wedza and Mudzi districts, with constituencies with less numbers likely to be collapsed and merged.
According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), each constituency with less than 24 000 registered voters will no longer be a constituency, resulting in their merger with others.
NewsDay is reliably informed that Zanu PF is currently mobilising people in Wedza South and Mudzi West constituencies to register to vote before they are merged with others.
A top official who declined to be named told NewsDay that there was need for at least 8 000 more registered voters in Wedza South to reach the intended target.
“There is a possibility that Wedza district will be a constituency on its own. This is because there is need for 8 000 new registered voters to reach the target average 24 000 per constituency. There are more registered voters in Wedza North as compared to Wedza South. So there is also a possibility that once Wedza constituencies are merged, some wards in Wedza North will be handed over to Marondera district. In Mashonaland East, the number of constituencies will not change, but some constituencies will overlap into other districts,” the official said.
Seke constituency is also reportedly going to be divided into two, thereby forcing one of the constituencies to overlap into Chikomba district.
Manyame district has its six wards in Chikomba, hence once they are taken back, it results in the collapse of one of the constituencies.
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“Mudzi district is going to lose one constituency because Mudzi West has less people, hence there is a possibility of it being shared between North and South,” the official added.
Speaking during a youth rally in Caledonia at the weekend, Zanu PF Mashonaland East provincial chairperson Joel Biggie Matiza said they were possibilities of changes in constituencies after the delimitation exercise.
“There is the issue of delimitation and it is being done according to the number of registered voters within a constituency. There is a possibility that we can be given another constituency here (Goromonzi South),” he said.
NewsDay is reliably informed that Caledonia and Solomio areas in Goromonzi had the required numbers of registered voters for a constituency, hence the splitting of Goromonzi South into two.
Currently, Zec has a total of 5,6 million registered voters, who upon dividing by the country’s 210 constituencies give 24 000 people per constituency.
Zec chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba told delegates at a workshop a few months ago that constituencies with less than 20 000 voters would be collapsed.
Delimitation is the process of dividing the country into constituencies and wards for the purposes of elections of persons to constituency seats in the National Assembly and of councillors to local authorities.
The process is carried out in terms of sections 160 and 161 of the Constitution.
