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Locadia Mavhudzi Herald Reporter
The voter registration blitz started on a high note in the Midlands province yesterday, with the exercise being carried out in Gokwe north and south in preparation for spreading it to the whole province. Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s Midlands provincial officer Mrs Dorcas Mpofu said the biometric voter registration exercise was going on smoothly in Gokwe north and south where they began the blitz yesterday.

“We received 360 biometric voter registration kits for the province and so far the blitz is going on smoothly in Gokwe. The response at polling centres is overwhelming, a situation that reflects well on community awareness on voter registration.” Mrs Mpofu said they deployed their staff to Gokwe early to ensure they reached their destinations on time despite the poor road network in some parts of the district,” she said.

She said the voter registration blitz would be held in four phases and will last 72 days. “From Gokwe, we will be moving to Mberengwa and Zvishavane in the next phase,” said Mrs Mpofu.

“Chirumhanzu and Kwekwe will be in the third phase and lastly Gweru and Shurugwi.” The voter registration blitz, that also began yesterday across the country, took over from the continuous voter registration exercise that has been taking place since September 14. Continuous voter registration was only being done at 63 centres countrywide. About 32 000 people countrywide has been registered under BVR between September 14 and last week. ZEC is targeting to register seven million voters using the 3 000 biometric voter registration (BVR) kits procured from China. Each biometric voter registration kit has a capacity to register between 80 and 100 people per day.