Zimbabwe elections body says provisional voters’ roll out ahead of elections

HARARE, April 30– The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has announced that a provisional voters’ roll for the forthcoming elections is now ready for inspection, marking the first step towards elections scheduled for either July or August this year.
Acting chief elections officer Utoile Silaigwana said in a statement on Sunday that members of the public would be able to inspect the roll over 11 days from May 19-29.

“The purpose of the provisional voters’ roll inspection is to allow members of the public to check if their details were correctly captured and if not, have their anomalies corrected,” he said.

He said ZEC understood that the roll could contain mistakes and registrants should check their details to avoid inconveniences during polling.
In cases where some registrants have died, relatives can submit burial orders or death certificates so that their names can be removed from the roll.
Registrants may also switch polling stations if they have changed places of residence.

“Once all the corrections have been taken on board, the commission will then produce the final voters’ roll that will be used in the forthcoming harmonized elections,” Silaigwana said.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa is yet to proclaim election dates, but much depends on the readiness of the voters’ roll.
According to the law, he had to proclaim the date between April 28 and June 7 in order to be within the July 21-Aug. 21 period during which the elections should be held in terms of the constitution.  – XINHUA