The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has removed over 22 000 dead people from the voters’ rolls in the latest batch of such routine deletions.
The routine removal of 22 656 dead people from the voters’ roll comes ahead of by-elections and harmonised elections, in that order, pencilled for 2022 and 2023.
Speaking at a Friday meeting with civil society organisations, ZEC chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba said the meeting was meant to discuss all electoral issues of concern. Said Justice Chigumba:
We discussed issues around polling, deferment of the mobile voter registration exercise and gazetting of the deceased as a precondition for voters’ roll cleaning.
Justice Chigumba appealed to citizens who have lost their relatives to notify ZEC so that the names are removed from the voters roll. She added:
The issue of ghost voters has been misunderstood over the years. Monthly, the Registrar-General Office sends us a list of deceased voters and, members of the public must come forward and tell us about the death of their relatives. That is the only way we can remove deceased voters from voters roll.
Speaking on the postponement of the mobile voter registration exercise which was scheduled for December 6, she said the deferment was meant to allow all eligible stakeholders to acquire national identity cards, which are a requisite for voter registration.
The mobile voter registration has been postponed to February 2022.
More: The Herald
WELLDONE JUSTICE PRISCILLA CHIGUMBA. YOU ARE CLEANING OUR VOTERS ROLE. FOR MANY YEARS IT HAD NOT BEEN CLEANED LIKE WHAT YOU ARE DOING NOW.
BUT IT WILL NEVER BE 100% CLEAN BECAUSE PEOPLE DIE DAILY. SECONDLY, SOME DEATHS WHICH OCCUR IN COMMUNAL LANDS ARE NOT REGISTERED. SUCH KIND OF DEATHS GET REGISTERED ONLY WHEN ONE WANTS TO OBTAIN A DEATH CERTIFICATE.
NOW LET ME DEAL WITH HOW ONE WOULD OBTAIN A DEATH CERTIFICATE FOR HIS/HER RELATIVE WHO DIED AND BURIED IN THE COMMUNAL LANDS. THE RELATIVE GETS A CONFIRMATION LETTER OF THAT PARTICULAR DEATH FROM THE HEADMAN. ARMED WITH THAT CONFIRMATION LETTER, THE RELATIVE APPROACHES THE WARD COUNCILLOR WHO WILL CONFIRM IN A LETTER THAT HE HAS SUCH A HEADMAN IN HIS AREA OF JURISDICTION.
ARMED WITH THE TWO LETTERS ONE THEN APPROACHES DISTRICT ADMINISTRATOR'S OFFICE WHERE HE/SHE WILL MAKE THE FINAL APPLICATION FOR THE DEATH CERTIFICATE.
INI NDINI, IWE NDIWE.
YOURS SINCERELY
CDE KUFA KWANGU ZVAROVA
[THE BUSH LAWYER]