ZEC cleans up voters’ roll

THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has removed about 5 000 deceased persons from the voters roll as the election management body cleans the roll in terms of the Electoral Act.

The removal of deceased persons from the voters’ roll was announced by ZEC’s chief elections officer, Mr Utloile Silaigwana, in a Government Gazette published yesterday.

ZEC regularly and routinely removes dead voters from the roll as data from the Registrar-General is made available from the lists of people who have been certified as dead.

The election management body has consequently invited objections, should there be any, in respect of the intended removal of the names from the voters roll.

“It is hereby notified, in terms of section 33(4) read with section 27(1) of the Electoral Act [Chapter 2:13], that voter registration officer have reason to believe that the persons whose names are listed in the First Schedule, and who were registered as voters for the constituencies, wards and polling stations listed therein have died. The names of those persons will be removed from the voters roll unless notice of appeal is given to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission,” said Mr Silaigwana in the notice.

“By means of this notice, notification is made to any voter on the First Schedule who may be alive to lodge an objection, at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Mahachi Quantum, 1, Nelson Mandela Avenue, corner Kaguvi Street and Jason Moyo Avenue, Harare, and at the respective Commission Provincial Offices, to the inclusion of his or her name in the First Schedule using the form prescribed in the Second Schedule no later than seven (7) days from the date of publication of this notice.”

The house cleaning is done to ensure that no one can try and vote using identity particulars belonging to a dead person who they might physically resemble, although ID cards are supposed to be handed in to the authorities when a death is reported.

Apart from publishing the names and national identity numbers of the dead voters, Mr Silaigwana also published the constituencies, wards and polling stations they were registered under.

Objections have to come from the actual person listed as dead.

The form the objector must fill does not only require identity details but also a declaration of the willingness of that person to appear before a magistrate to have their living status as the possessor of ID particulars of the mistakenly listed deceased confirmed.

It is almost unheard of for a mistaken notification of death to be recorded, but the Electoral Act requires the formal gazetted notice with the invitation for objections.

In compliance with the law, the electoral body adheres to its constitutional mandate and always removes names of dead people from the voters’ roll once their deaths were brought to the attention of the Commission.

The removal of deceased persons is a continuous process that the Commission has always carried out whenever such need arises.