Registration and verification of voters’ roll ends one day early

By Tichaona Sibanda
14 February 2008-

There was confusion at most voter registration and verification centres when people rushing to make last minute checks were told the exercise finished on Wednesday.

Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa said the exercise ended at 7pm Wednesday despite notices in the official state media that it was going to end Thursday.

According to Muchemwa, hundreds of people have lodged complaints to the Zimbabwe Election Commission after discovering their names had either been deleted or omitted from the voters roll, after registering last year.

‘There were a lot of angry people at these registration centres Thursday wanting to beat the deadline but were shocked to hear the exercise was called off a day early. People are already suspecting something is amiss with the whole exercise because they are never told the truth about the voters roll,’ Muchemwa said.
All eyes will now be on the nomination courts that are expected to sit from 10am to 4pm Friday. All parliamentary, senatorial and urban council candidates standing in next month’s elections are expected to register their nomination papers in their respective regions. It will cost each candidate Z$100 million to file their papers.

Zanu-PF leader Robert Mugabe, MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai, Independent Simba Makoni and possibly Arthur Mutambara from the other MDC faction, will also be filing their papers for the presidential race. Other parties that have sprung up in the last three months are also expected to field presidential candidates.