TOBAIWA Mudede . . . in charge of voter registration

By Farisai Gonye 

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s ruling party is moving people from rural areas to register as urban voters for next year’s planned joint presidential and parliamentary polls to strengthen its chances of wrestling urban constituencies from the opposition. 

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), a coalition of non-governmental organisations whose mandate is to promote free and fair elections, accused the ruling ZANU PF party of busing its supporters from its rural strongholds to beef up its thin urban voter base. 

In an update released last week on Zimbabwe’s voter registration exercise which ended on Friday, ZESN said ZANU PF was using housing cooperatives made up mostly of its supporters to provide letters to rural voters so they could pose as Harare residents. 

According to the elections advocacy body, some of the ZANU PF supporters are coming from as far as Gokwe to register as Harare voters. 

Gokwe is a ruling party stronghold located about 170km north-west of Harare. 

ZESN said its teams assessing the just-ended voter registration exercise came across the scam in Harare North constituency where hundreds of ZANU PF supporters were using letters from the Ernest Kadungure Housing Co-operative as proof of residence. 

Construction of houses is yet to start at the housing co-operative and is expected to take place well after the March 2008 elections. 

“One wonders how many hundreds of people have been registered against these stands. What is, however clear is that for every stand, a minimum of six people get registered in a constituency they do not reside,” ZESN director Rindai Chipfunde said. 

The Registrar-General’s Office, which is responsible for voter registration, requires letters from landlords or water and electricity bills as proof that those seeking to register as voters reside in the constituencies where they want to vote. 

“What this means is that we have a situation where people are being registered in a constituency where they do not belong simply because they have been allocated stands in the particular constituency,” said Chipfunde. 

ZANU PF has since 2005 been parceling out housing stands under the banner of housing co-operatives at various urban farms to its supporters. 

Most of the housing stands have remained unoccupied because of non-existent service provision. 

ZESN said beneficiaries of the housing stands were now being asked to provide five additional people who were also registered in the urban constituencies against a single stand number. 

This has enabled ZANU PF to register rural people in urban constituencies, hoping to boost its dwindling urban support base. Additional inquiries by ZimOnline indicated that the exercise was rampant and widespread throughout the country. 

ZANU PF has systematically bused rural supporters to register in urban areas such as Mutare, Kadoma, Chegutu, Gweru, and Masvingo since the voter registration exercise began on June 18. 

In one case in Mutare Central, 12 people from outside the constituency used the same address to register as voters. 

“Sometimes we have like 10 people using a single water bill to register in the constituency. ZANU-PF officials simply accompany these people and we cannot ask questions in such intimidating circumstances,” a Registrar General Office official told ZimOnline. 

It was not possible to get a comment from the Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede, who has in the past denied assisting President Robert Mugabe rig past elections. 

Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, under whose ministry Mudede falls, refused to take questions on the matter. 

“I can’t respond to that. You want to tarnish an exercise going on smoothly,” he said before switching off his phone. 

The ruling party has since 2000 played second fiddle to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party in urban constituencies. 

Zimbabwe is set to hold joint parliamentary and presidential elections next year. – ZimOnline