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Nyore Madzianike Manicaland Bureau
THE political situation in the country will not affect the ongoing Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) blitz, which is in its third phase in Manicaland, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has said.

Provincial chief elections officer Mr Moffat Masabeya said the blitz would continue as per script and people should not be swayed not to go and register to vote by the prevailing political situation. Mr Masabeya said the prevailing political situation would at the end of day need people to exercise their democratic right and choose their leaders which can only be done through registering to vote.

“As you are aware, we are in the third phase of our voter registration exercise where we are covering areas like Makoni and Buhera districts,” he said. “We are covering five constituencies in Makoni and two constituencies in Buhera, that is, Buhera North and Buhera West constituencies. The third phase started on November 16 and is expected to end by December 1. As far as ZEC is concerned, we are not being affected by what is happening. We are doing our business as usual.”

Mr Masabeya said they had not yet received complaints from ZEC officers who were undertaking the voter registration exercise. He encouraged those who have not yet registered to do so.

“We do not force people to register to vote, but we encourage them to come on board and register,” he said. “We are saying this is their chance and it will be very costly for them, especially those in rural areas, if they miss this chance. I say so because they will be forced to fork out money to travel to our static office, which is at the district offices. The reason we are carrying out this exercise is to take our office to the people.”

Mr Masabeya commended the religious sects for participating in the ongoing blitz, saying the true picture would be seen when they visit Marange where there is a large a population of apostolic faith sect members. As of November 21, ZEC had registered 36 105 people in Makoni district, with 20 808 being women.

In Buhera, a total of 21 000 had registered to vote, with 13 144 being women. A total of 1 328 voters had also registered at ZEC’s static office, bringing the total number of those registered to 58 548 as of November 21 during the third phase of the BVR blitz.