Zim on new electoral process for 2018

My country's citizens are mostly in confusion mode as to how the upcoming 2018 harmonised elections will be held following the government's stance to employ a bio-metric registration process for voter registration. The election regulatory body, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has so far acquired more than 2500 bio-metric machines to speed up the process of creating a new voter's role for the coming elections. It is also in the process of acquiring more machines so that citizens living in the remote parts of the country are reached for registration in a bid for them to exercise their right to vote.

So far the bio-metric registration teams that have been deployed on the ground are not yet adequate. In rural areas deployment was done at growth points where some have to travel long distances to access the facilities. With the current economic crisis the rural folk find it difficult to raise money to travel these long distances to register.

Even in urban areas like Harare,only one registration centre exists, but the authorities will soon address this issue when more bio-metric machines are acquired. This is a new exercise since the country attained independence from Britain's colonial rule and every citizen is excited to take part in this new drive although some remain skeptical about this new process.

It is a good thing that ZEC began to role out voter education campaigns to do away with the perception which uninformed citizens had over this new registration exercise. Programmes are being broadcasted on the airwaves to educate and inform the electorate so that they have a better understanding of the new process.

The scrapping away of charges for the electorate to acquire birth certificates and identification documents by the Registrar General's office is another move that will increase the number of voters in next year's elections. We thank the government for providing such and we pray for peaceful, fair and credible elections for our sovereign country.