Zimpapers Logo

Noah Pito in Hurungwe
Legislators here have expressed satisfaction with the way the just-ended Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) mop-up exercise was conducted in their constituencies. They, however, expressed concern at the failure by the Registrar-General’s Office to expeditiously issue prospective voters with birth certificates and identity documents.

A number of eligible voters, they claim, failed to register as they did not have the necessary documents.
According to the legislators, there is need for the Registrar-General’s Office to conduct another round of the mobile registration exercise.
Hurungwe North Member of Parliament (MP) Cde Reuben Marumahoko said the RG’s Office did not spend enough time in his constituency.

“The voter registration programme went on very well, although we still have people who failed to register due to lack of the required documents.
“The Registrar-General’s Office should have been on the ground to issue birth certificates and identity documents for, say six months before commencement of the BVR exercise, but what we saw in some cases was that the BVR teams were ahead of the Registrar-General’s Office.

“Even when they issued the documents, they could not complete the process and up to now, some of those who applied for new identity documents have not yet received them.”
Cde Marumahoko said there are still a number of third-generation aliens without proper birth certificates and identity documents.

Hurungwe West MP Cde Keith Guzah said although he encouraged communities in his constituency to continue registering at the main district centre, potential registrants continued to face the same problems.
“To a certain extent, some unscrupulous village heads had also disturbed the programme by demanding payment for authenticating papers required to acquire the documents.

“I also attribute some of the challenges faced by the villagers to the Registrar-General’s Office, which demanded too much from those who wanted to acquire birth certificates and identity cards, especially aliens,” he said.
Hurungwe Central legislator Cde Godfrey Beremauro said the number of voters registered in his constituency through the BVR mop-up exercise could have been much higher had the issuance of identity documents and birth certificates been seamless.
“We witnessed long queues for births certificates and identity documents daily at our Registrar-General’s Office in Karoi, an indication that we have a lot of eligible voters still struggling to get these documents,” he said.

Government has, however, urged eligible voters to continue registering as the BVR process is ongoing at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)’s district centres.