The opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) is demanding that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) reintroduce the 2018 voters roll to be used in the coming by-elections with concerns over irregularities that are spoiling the present one.
Addressing journalists in Harare, CCC deputy secretary for elections Ellen Shiriyedenga said the party had established that the current voters roll was marred with irregularities and should be thrown away.
“The CCC has concluded that the current state of the Voters roll is not fit for the purposes of the impending by election nor any other purpose thereof. CCC is making frantic engagements with ZEC and is also taking up litigation measures to compel ZEC to revert to the 2018 Voters roll using the 2008 delimited Ward and Constituency boundaries,” she said.
The opposition party also also claimed that the electoral body was not responding to its queries.
“The CCC wrote to ZEC on 24 February 2022 and attached a dossier stating the queries. To date no response has been received from ZEC. (The dossier will be shared to members of the press after this presser).”
CCC said it’s party candidates were in engagement with ZEC at their respective district Multi Party Liaison Committees seeking redress on the anomalies at their ward or constituency levels.
“Individual candidates through their lawyers have written to ZEC with regards to the specific discrepancies affecting their jurisdictions and respective court litigations are in progress.
“CCC supporters and candidates have been conducting ground verifications to validate the stated voters roll queries,” Shiriyedenga said.
The party said it commissioned activist group Team Pachedu to analyse the current voters roll. The group in the last few weeks, has been exposing several anomalies surrounding the voters roll.
Shiriyedenga said “the preliminary findings with respect to the January 31 Voters roll anomalies, ranging from duplicates, displaced voters, persons with same addresses being moved to other wards or constituencies without their knowledge.
“Moreover, we had cases of 413 registered voters in Harare East that did not provide their known addresses in Harare East as well as suspiciously multiple individuals registered under one address.
“The on-going voters roll audits are increasingly unearthing even more shocking revelations which point to the shambolic state of the voters’ roll: Persons registered under the same roof suddenly find themselves belonging to different wards;
“The problem of voters using the same address but suddenly belonging to different wards or constituencies is seemingly a common phenomenon across all provinces throughout the country and are prevalent in some Bulawayo constituencies, Marondera, Bindura,, etc. Glenview, Glenorah etc,” the CCC party noted. Nehanda Radio
