TellZim reporter
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has urged people in and around Masvingo province to come out in their numbers and register to vote as the constituency delimitation process will be all about numbers.
ZEC deputy provincial elections officer Maxwell Ncube made the call urging people to embrace voter registration blitz so that when the process of delimitation begins, no constituency is lost.
“People in the province should register to vote so that these constituencies are maintained. The total number of registered voters on the voters roll is the one that determines how constituency boundaries are marked.
“Aspiring voters should take charge and make use of the opportunity to register to vote. For example at national level, the statistics show that in Harare more people are registering to vote than in any other province,” said Ncube.
Delimitation is the process whereby the total number of registered voters is divided into respective constituencies which at national level are 210 House of Assembly seats. The process is all about looking at the total number of people in the national voters roll which is divided over the 210 constituencies.
“After the registration process is done, the total number of voters is compiled and that number is divided by the total number of 210 constituencies at national level, distributed equally and that is when the sharing of constituencies is drawn from. For example in Masvingo province, there is one ward in Mwenezi which falls under Chivi South constituency. What that means is that when people are voting, the ward belongs to Mwenezi at local authority level, but their legislator would be the one of Chivi South.
“The same criteria of distributing figures at national level, follows at provincial level where the total figures (for the province) will in turn influence delimitation at district level. The total number of people registered in the province would be divided to determine the number of constituencies at district levels,” added Ncube.
