Rutendo Rori Marondera Correspondent
Over 111 000 people in Mudzi, Mutoko and Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe districts in Mashonaland East Province have so far registered as voters under the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) blitz being held across the country in preparation for the 2018 harmonised elections. Speaking at a stakeholders meeting for BVR yesterday, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Mashonaland East acting provincial elections officer Ms Sphiwe Chavhunduka said the BVR blitz’s Phase One, which started on October 10 in the three districts, would end on October 25.

“The Voter Education team had been sent five days earlier and as at 16 October 2017, a total of 111 881 had been registered in the areas,” she said. “In Marondera District, which is in phase two and three, registration starts from 29 October.” Ms Chavhunduka said the voter registration blitz using the BVR kits would run until January 15, 2018.

“The kits were manufactured by Laxton Group Limited based in China and let me assure you that they are working well,” she said. “A new voters’ roll is going to be compiled from this exercise, so I urge every individual to register. Let’s register in tens, hundreds and thousands.” Ms Chavhunduka said ZEC had conducted a five-day workshop for nine master BVR kit operators’ trainers and four technicians.

“In the province, the master trainers trained ZEC staff, 60 BVR supervisors and 765 BVR kit operators in preparation for the BVR exercise. 117 Voter education supervisors were trained at the province and voter education officers would be trained at the districts as the phases approach,” she said. ZEC recently received 2 600 BVR kits in preparation for a blitz to register voters nationwide, which commenced on October 10. It will be conducted using Biometric Voter Registration technology, which entails capturing a person’s fingerprints, facial features and identity card details. This rules out any chances of double voting. ZEC intends to register seven million voters using the new kits. About 5,8 million people were registered on the voters’ roll used in the last harmonised elections in 2013. The voters’ roll for the 2018 harmonised elections would be polling station-based.

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