Women’s League embarks on voter registration programme

THE Zanu-PF Women’s League in Bulawayo province has embarked on a programme to assist women in the party to register to vote as part of the party’s strategy to win the 2018 elections.

The provincial women’s league yesterday mobilised about 1 500 women from the party to make sure that they have adequate documentation for them to register to vote.

Commissioners of oath were engaged to assist in the exercise, which is expected to continue until the end of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise on December 1.

Cde Rebecca Manjere, the Women’s League Bulawayo provincial secretary for information and publicity, said women are the backbone of the party and it is their duty to lead by example.

“This is an inter district exercise that we’ve embarked on to encourage our members to register to vote.

“They are also expected to encourage their families to do the same. Women are the back bone of the party and it’s their duty to make sure that they lead by example and make sure there’s development in every section of the party,” Cde Manjere.

She said they sought the services of commissioners of oath to assist in the issuing of affidavits so that the women register to vote.

“We researched after realising that the number of people registering to vote is too low.

“The concern we received was that people are being turned away because they can’t produce proof of residence which is accepted by Zec officials,” said Cde Manjere.

“In urban areas like Bulawayo, we have several people who live in houses whose owners are living outside the country.

“It’s then difficult for their landlords to assist in signing affidavits for them. This has caused people to stay at home and not go out to register to vote.

“We’ve therefore engaged commissioners of oaths to assist us with those documents so that people can be able to register to vote.”

She said the Women’s League was also organising meetings with Zec officials to explain the BVR programme to party members.

Last week, Zec revealed that it has so far registered only 675 762 voters countrywide, which is 9.7 percent of the targeted seven million voters.

The first phase of the BVR exercise began on October 10 and will run until Thursday while the second phase will be done from October 29 to November 13. The third segment will take place between November 16 and December 1.

Latest Zec statistics show that as at October 17, Mashonaland East had registered the most voters at 111 881, followed by Manicaland 109 607, Midlands 92 183 and Masvingo 84 642. In Mashonaland Central Zec registered 82 493 people, Harare had 80 192 registered voters, Mashonaland West 44 341, Matabeleland South 25 841, Matabeleland North 25 791 and Bulawayo 18 216 people.

Zanu-PF political commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere last month said the party is targeting to ensure that five million supporters are registered to vote in next year’s harmonised elections.

From the five million, Bulawayo’s provincial chairman Cde Dennis Ndlovu promised the party that his province would register 140 000 voters for the elections. — @ pamelashumba1