Maravi

Zimbabwe starts voter registration

Zimbabwe starts voter registration
By Chansa Kabwela and George Chellah in Harare, Zimbabwe
Saturday June 16, 2007 [04:00]

ZIMBABWE will tomorrow commence the countrywide mobile registration of voters in readiness for next year's presidential and parliamentary elections. During a press conference on Wednesday, Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede told journalists that the mobile registration would commence on June 18 up to August 18, 2007.

Mudede said the exercise would include the registration of eligible new voters and those that have since changed constituencies from the last polls.

"We are ready to conduct our countrywide mobile registration which we conduct every year. We will commence on June 18 until mid-August," he said.

Mudede said registration officers had been trained and were ready for deployment.
"The officers will be issuing birth certificates, identity documents as well as voter registration, inspection of the voters' roll, citizenship registration and restoration for those who lost it by default," he said.

Mudede said all districts would have a minimum of three teams deployed to ensure accessibility by all people in the country.

He said people intending to register as voters should take to the registration centres either a national registration card or eligible national registration waiting pass with a picture of the holder on it or a valid Zimbabwean passport.
Mudede said prospective voters were also expected to provide documentary evidence such as the birth certificate if they lost their passports or national identification cards.

He explained that people without birth certificates should bring two witnesses so that they could be issued with identification particulars.

Mudede said drivers' licences would not be accepted for voters' registration.
He said people that were declared stateless by the citizenship amendment Act No.12 of 2003 after they failed to regularise their citizenship status but wanted to restore it are required to bring their birth certificates, original identity cards or a passport and if married, their marriage certificates.

"The requirements would be followed and we appeal to the public to bring the relevant documents to our centres," Mudede said.

He appealed to voters to visit inspection centres to verify if their personal details were recorded correctly and cause corrections to be made where necessary.
Mudede said metal identification cards were still valid and that the public should not congest centres to acquire the new polythene identification cards.

He also advised persons aged 18 years and above or people that had moved to other constituencies to register as voters in their respective areas.
He said details of the exercise would be published in the media and could also be accessed at the relevant district registration offices.

The Registrar General's office recently received US$7 million from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to clear a backlog of 300 passports as well as issue documents.
Zimbabwe's presidential and parliamentary elections will be held concurrently early next year with local government polls preceding them.

Labels: DEMOCRACY, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 4:29 AM