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Report on voters' roll observation in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Election Support Network
January 19, 2011

http://www.zesn.org.zw/pub_view.cfm?pid=280

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Executive Summary

In April 2010, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), a civic organisation whose main goal is to promote democratic elections in Zimbabwe, embarked on a Voters' Roll Audit (VRA) to assess the quality of the voters' roll in Zimbabwe. The research project sought to test the accuracy; currency and completeness of the voters' roll and make recommendations for a clean-up of the roll.

Voter registration is the principal means to determine those eligible to vote and those ineligible to vote. Thus a flawed voters' roll can disenfranchise eligible voters and allow ineligible voters to vote. International law requires fairness in voter registration in order ensure that all eligible citizens can be registered to vote.

Observation of the voters' roll was conducted using three tests - a computer test, a list-to-people field test and a people-to-list test. In the computer tests, a number of variables were selected such as age, gender and number of voters in 2008 compared to 2010. In the two field tests conducted, the currency, completeness and accuracy of the voters' roll were ascertained by confirming the identity, national registration number, date of birth and address of the voter. A systematic analysis of data obtained from these tests provides critical information about the quality of the voters that can inform efforts to improve the voter registration in Zimbabwe.

Findings from the study

Accuracy of the voters' roll

• The list-to-people test revealed that 41% of registered voters are no longer residing at the address in the voters' roll.
• 97% of respondents have not transferred to reflect the change in residential address against 3% who transferred to new wards.
• 57% of voters had no knowledge of how to transfer from the voters' roll.
• 93% of entries in the voters' roll were accurately entered and 7% of entries had errors, mainly on name, sex, date of birth and identity numbers.
• 99% of voters had their identity number captured correctly.

Completeness of the voters' roll

• There was a 6.35% increase in the number of registered voters between 2008 and 2010.
• More males (52%) were registered compared to females, who constituted 48% of the registered population. Yet population statistics for Zimbabwe indicate that women constitute 52 per cent of the population.
• The computer test showed that only 18% of those registered are youths aged between 18-30.
• 49% of respondents did not appear on the voters; roll against 51% who appeared. However, ZESN is cautious with this finding as there was no electronic database to confirm if the persons were absent elsewhere in the voters' roll. This figure could also be explained by the migratory nature of Zimbabweans.
• 95% of voters had used voter registration drives to register as voters.
• 98% of respondents had national identity cards and 2% did not.

Currency of the voters' roll

• The list-to-people test showed that 27% of voters registered in the voters' roll were deceased.
• The computer test revealed 2344 people born between 1901 and 1909, therefore aged between 101 and 110 years old. It also revealed nine people born between 1890 and 1900 (aged between 111 and 120 years).

The voter registration process

• 94% of voters expressed satisfaction with the voter registration process.
• 94% of respondents felt that providing proof of residence was not a difficult task, with urban provinces - mainly Harare (29%) and Bulawayo voters (14%) - expressing difficulties in obtaining proof of residence.
• The study revealed that rural provinces have higher voter turnout than urban provinces.

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