Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Mugabe in secret voter registration: MDC
Fikile Mapala, NewZimbabwe.com
June 05, 2008

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/electoral269.18288.html

President Robert Mugabe's government is conducting a secret voter registration exercise of his Zanu PF party supporters in rural districts ahead of a second round of the presidential poll slated for June 27, opposition officials claimed Tuesday.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has said that it will use the same voters' roll used during the general elections on March 29, meaning those who were not registered before February 14 this year will not be able to vote.

But the MDC this week charged that Mugabe's supporters are still being registered in traditional rural strongholds ahead of the election which pits him against Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

"We have overwhelming evidence showing that Zanu PF has embarked on a secret exercise to register voters who will take part in the forthcoming run-off election," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

"Zanu PF is registering its supporters in the rural districts on the basis that they will vote on June 27. We know so because people have been given registration receipts. And district administrators who sympathise with us have been phoning the party and giving us details of this operation. We are moving in to deal with that effectively."

The registration was mainly going on in Murehwa, Mutoko, Wedza and Marondera in Mashonaland East province as well as Shamva, Mt Darwin, Rushinga and Chiweshe in Mashonaland Central province, Chamisa said.

ZEC chief elections officer Utoile Silaigwana said he was not aware of the secret voter registration exercise. However, he insisted there was nothing unusual about the registration of new voters as the process was ongoing throughout the year.

Silaigwana said: "You must understand that the voter registration exercise is an ongoing process throughout the year. The Registrar General is mandated to register voters at any given time during the year.

"The process will not stop because there is a run-off and people may be confusing that with what you are referring to as a secret registration exercise."

The official insisted the voters' roll to be used in the runoff was the same as the one used on March 29.

The runoff was called after the first round of voting failed to produce an outright winner. Mugabe was beaten into second place in the first round with 43,2 percent of the vote, compared to Tsvangirai's 47,9 percent.

The MDC accuses Mugabe's supporters of launching a campaign of violence in a bid to keep him in power. Since March 29, MDC officials say up of 50 of their supporters have been killed.

Mugabe has rejected the accusations and instead blames the MDC for fomenting violence.

"The MDC opposition, formed at the behest of Britain in 1999, is on an evil crusade of dividing our people on political lines as they continue to fan and sponsor heinous acts of political violence targeting innocent citizens," said Mugabe last week, dismissing his opponents as stooges of the West.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP