Fredrick Moyo
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) second phase mobile voter registration blitz that commenced on April 11 2022 came to an end on April 30, with Masvingo province recording a total of 10 613 first time voters and 5 226 transfers.
ZEC Deputy Provincial Election Officer (PEO) Maxwell Ncube confirmed the development and encouraged people to come and register to vote as all offices in the district will be opened during normal working hours.
“We greatly appreciate those who came forward and registered in the second phase of the blitz and more registrants responded positively and the figures went up with more than 50 percent as compared to the first phase of the blitz.
“We are actually happy with the statistics and this might be attributed to intensive voter education that we were undertaking with the help of stakeholders, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and political parties. The coming of the Registrar General’s Office with the issuing of national Identity Documents (IDs) that we need in the voter registration process,” said Ncube.
He encouraged people to register in numbers as they will be preparing for delimitation as soon as the census statistics are released.
“Yes we have ended the outreach programme but the registration process is still going on at all our seven offices in the province and will still be operating during normal working hours, so people are encouraged to visit the offices and register to vote for the upcoming 2023 general elections. As soon as the census statistics are announced, we will start preparing for delimitation so people are encouraged to register in numbers as the delimitation process is all about numbers,” added Ncube.
My Age Zimbabwe Programmes Manager Joseph Njowa said they are actually happy with the increment in numbers and encouraged young people to register to vote as they constitute the largest chunk of population in the country and are the future generation.
“Young people constitute more than 60 percent of the population which makes them a key demographic that should continuously contribute to nation building and the development of their communities. Young people, as leaders of today and tomorrow, bear the civic responsibility of meaningfully contributing to sustainable development.
“Prioritising registering to vote is a critical step towards their social responsibility especially for the first time voters. We applaud the increase in numbers of individuals that have registered to vote and continue to urge youths to take responsibility by exercising their constitutional right to vote. For so long young people have been regarded as mourners and complainers who do not act. It is time we come out in our numbers to participate and contribute to nation building. It begins by registering to vote,” said Njowa.
Efforts to get a comment from Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development (COTRAD) Programmes Officer Ishmael Kupfuwa were fruitless.
Of the 10 613 people who registered to vote in the just ended blitz, there were only 4 968 females and 5 645 males and from the 5 226 transfers 2 671 were male while 2 555 were female.
