THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has registered a record 83 percent of
eligible voters around Masvingo, as the country begins the count down towards the
2023 general elections.
According to figures made available by the ZEC deputy director in Masvingo,
Maxwell Ncube, 656 691 representing 83 percent of eligible voters in the province
have successfully registered with the electoral body.
The highest figure of eligible voters to be registered ahead of the past five
elections was 79 percent achieved in 2018 when 617 212 people registered as
voters.
The voters’ roll graph has sharply skyrocketed this year. Adults are showing
interest in the voting process,said Ncube, adding that the 2023 voters’ roll looked
totally different from the 2018 roll in character.
From the statistics, the number of citizens who flock for registration shows a
promising result that our records will breach more that 83 percent. We urge
Masvingo residents to come in numbers so that they get registered before the 2023
registration come to a halt.
On gender balance, Ncube said around August 2022, the mens graph overwhelmed
that of women, a factor he attributed to lack of transport facilities to take members
of the public to and from the registration centres.
As a result men outclassed women, especially in rural areas where they are a
privileged group with access to financial materials that made it easier for them to
travel to the registration centres to register.
Ncube said when free transport to registration centres became available, the
womens registration graph drastically increased.
In January 2023, we had registered 2 962 women and 2 764 men, which has seen
the population of men registration getting slightly lower, he said.
At times the issue of high registration percentages can be affected by the aspect of
religion. Some churches do not advocate for the right to vote. They demobilize the
congregants, which may make the desire to break the 90 percent registration mark
a tough assignment for us.
Ncube said deaths also affected the registration percentage often making it difficult
for the voter registration to never reach 100 percent.
Every year of elections, it is an obvious case that the number of the registered
voters will never be the same because of deaths; we conduct a clean-up exercise so
that the voters’ roll contains names of people that are alive.
The registration doors are still open till they are pronounced closed by His
Excellency, President Emerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa upon the onset of the 2023
harmonised elections. Members of the public should feel free to come for
registration and even those who may want to transfer to other places, they may
come, for instance, last year, a total of 1 630 were successfully transferred, said
Ncube.
