MDC-T says it has evidence that ZEC is plotting to disadvantage urban voters

In an interview with the Daily News, MDC-T’s secretary for elections Murisi Zwizwai said that his party has evidence that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) wants to disadvantage urban voters by increasing biometric voter registration points in rural areas which is a Zanu-PF stronghold.

Said Zwizwai:

Zec wants to manipulate voters’ registration by starving areas that are perceived to be opposition strongholds, such as urban centres. A voters’ registration process should be transparent and inclusive, yet that is not what is happening. The Zec subcommittee involving political parties has not yet received the full report because this is all being done secretly. We are also aware that Zec wants to register Harare last and bus people to disrupt the process as they have done in the past. As the MDC, we have said we are not going to allow this to happen, as this is a clear plot to disenfranchise the urban voter … it is calculated constitutional mischief by Zec. We are aware that there is an invisible hand of Zanu PF in all this and we are going to fight to ensure that Harare province, which has the highest numbers in terms of population has the highest number of voter registration centres.

Murisa said Bulawayo will have 392 centres, Matabeleland South 623 and Midlands 1 348 registration centres in phase one of the registration exercise. In phase two, Matabeleland North will have 764, Masvingo 1 238 and Manicaland, will be dealt with in phase three, will have 1 003 centres. For phase three, Mashonaland East would have 1 200, while Mashonaland Central would have 822. In the final phase, Mashonaland West would have 1 303 centres, compared to 700 for Harare.

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