by Tapiwanashe Mutonhodzi
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is committed to delivering free, fair and credible elections, said ZEC Chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba whilst addressing election observers today in Harare.
“ZEC remains committed to offer free, fair and credible elections. ZEC invited stakeholders to witness printing of ballot papers at Fidelity Printers despite there being no legal obligation to invite them,” she said.
The ZEC Chairperson revealed to the election observers that the total number of registered voters was 5.6 million.
“Total registered voters stands at 5.6 million and this excludes those who will be on exclusion list like those who share same surnames and other pertinent details while we wait for the Registrar General to confirm the authenticity of such people. They were excluded but this does not mean it’s the end of the road for them as we sent details to relevant Government departments to correct or confirm and once that is done they will appear on the voters roll on voting day,” said Justice Chigumba.
Over the issue of creation of new polling stations, Justice Chigumba told election observers that ZEC was not going to create new polling stations.
“The law does not allow us to create new polling stations but we established sub-polling stations to cater for a high number of voters on a given polling station,” she said.
Chigumba also said ZEC had been subjected to a baggage of litigation most of which had been fringe and dismissed by the courts.
“Allegations of designing the ballot paper in a biased way are regrettable as the two column system was the most cost effective given the inadequate resources. Most importantly printing of the ballot is an exclusive right of ZEC.
“It’s the primary responsibility of the Government of Zimbabwe to fund the holding of elections, support of Government has been augmented by development partners like United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) among others,” she said.
Clarifying the issue of postal voting, Justice Chigumba said postal voting was done in private and applicants for the postal vote were 7200.
“Seven thousand two hundred applicants for postal voting have been received, postal voting is done in private and allegations on the social media are a breach of that privacy and that’s regrettable...a postal vote is what it is, it has to be exercised through post,” she said.
