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Farirai Machivenyika-Senior Reporter 

Almost six million voters are now registered on the voters roll and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is confident in delivering an election that will reflect the will of the people.

ZEC chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba and senior ZEC staff yesterday appeared before the Senate Thematic Committee on Peace and Security and the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.

“Anyone is free to register to vote or is at liberty to change their polling station until two days after proclamation of the date of the election by the President. 

“After the proclamation of that date we will officially close voter registration for this year’s elections,” Justice Chigumba said.

“To date nearly six million voters have been registered but we can’t give actual figures as we’re still cleaning up the voters roll.”

The actual figures of registered voters eligible to vote in this year’s harmonised elections will be finalised two days after the proclamation of the elections date by the President when the roll is closed for those elections. 

While there was a mobile voter registration blitz last month to make it easier for more people to register, Justice Chigumba pointed out that registration is a continuous process and since the roll is still open for this year’s election the public could still register for this year’s elections at their district and provincial offices across the country.

“The commission is making strides to ensure that elections will be conducted peacefully in an environment that ensures that the will of the electorate is realised,” said Justice Chigumba. “It is satisfied that its preparations are well on course and is ready to discharge its mandate in accordance with the law.” The country is set to go to the polls on a date yet to be announced but between July 26 and August 26 with President Mnangagwa expected to announce the actual date soon.

Responding to questions from the legislators on the cost of cost of accessing the voters roll which they said was prohibitive, Justice Chigumba said it was Parliament responsibility to deal with the matter if they thought the cost was exorbitant. She could not answer questions regarding the availability of the voters roll in electronic form saying the matter was currently before the courts. “ZEC has been sued over the voters roll by an MP and the High Court has made an order with regards to this issue and the matter has been taken up on appeal and the matter is sub judice, so what I can say or cannot say is limited because of the Court rules which prohibits me from commenting directly to the issue of the voters roll. I don’t want to be in contempt of court,” she said.

Justice Chigumba said the commission had no reason to deny stakeholders access to the voters roll.

“As a commission there is absolutely no reason why we would not want voters to have access to the voters roll,” Justice Chigumba said.

She added that availability of the voters roll in electronic form was also being affected by provisions of the Data Protection Act which provides for protection of personal information.

“There is a new piece of legislation which is called the Data Protection Act that has not been aligned with the Electoral Act, which has placed additional responsibility on the commission to protect the data of our voters,” Justice Chigumba said. 

“We have made recommendations through the line ministry (Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs) how the Electoral Act can be aligned with the Data Protection Act so that we balance the need of voters to have ready access to the voters roll and requirements of the of the Data Protection Act to safeguard the data of our voters.”