About 5.3 million Zimbabweans registered to vote in mid-2018

HARARE, Feb. 15 — About 5.3 million Zimbabweans have registered
to vote in the upcoming elections scheduled for mid-2018, the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission said Tuesday.

The figures released by the electoral body showed that 5,310,734 people had
registered to vote since the exercise began in September last year.
However, the electoral body said the figure was provisional as it has yet
to undergo verification and de-duplication. Zimbabwe started biometric
voter registration in September at 63 district centers across the country,
followed by a mobile voter registration blitz in October, which ended in
December but was extended by another month until Feb. 8.

While mobile voter registration has closed, registration is still
continuing at the 63 district centers until a few weeks before the vote.
The Electoral Commission said registration was affected by power shortages
and heavy rains that made it difficult for some registrants to go and
register. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the presidential candidate for the
ruling ZANU-PF in the forthcoming polls, has pledged to hold credible, free
and fair elections. He came to power in November last year after the
resignation of former president Robert Mugabe. – XINHUA