The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Friday said it had identified over 180 000 errors on the voters’ roll as of 23 June 2022.
This was revealed by ZEC spokesperson Jasper Mangwana during a Press conference in Harare.
He said ZEEC has been making alterations to the voters’ roll in compliance with section 35 of the Electoral Act. Said Mangwana:
The commission continues to clean the voters’ roll because it is a fluid document. It continues to change.
The voters roll alterations that have been gazetted and effected, so far, as of June 23, 2022, is a total of 186 220 errors.
The majority of the errors include full stop, where there should not be a full stop, and omissions, in terms of the names of the chief of that area.
From November 21 up to date, the commission has gazetted a total of 96 284 deceased voters that have been removed from the voters roll.
The public must expect more because these figures continue to come every day.
However, electoral watchdogs have expressed concern about the high number of errors as this may compromise the credibility of the voters’ roll ahead of the 2023 elections.
Electoral Resource Centre (ERC) programmes manager Solomon Bobosibunu said:
The errors have a direct impact on ZEC’s credibility. These are administrative issues that must be very minimal, especially when the system is now computerised.
Why those errors in the first place? It’s high time the electoral body makes use of technology for accurate data capturing.
Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (ZESN) chairperson Andrew Makoni said it is imperative for citizens to inspect the voters’ roll to ensure that they are captured correctly. Said Makoni:
It is critical for the people to check the voters’ roll. Errors are unavoidable, but they must be minimised.
Citizens must go and inspect the voters’ roll and ensure that all their details are captured correctly.
Meanwhile, Mangwana said the Treasury had released US$83 million for the delimitation exercise and the voter inspection process.