BY HARRIET CHIKANDIWA HUMAN rights lawyers have requested that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to provide information pertaining to the number of people issued with national identity documents to justify its rollout of the current voter registration exercise.
In a letter addressed to Zec chairperson Priscilla Chigumba yesterday, the ZLHR requested that she must provides it with the number of people that have been issued with identity documents after the commission cancelled an earlier exercise on the pretext that the targeted population had no identity documents.
“The question is what has changed from November 24, 2021 to January 13, 2022 on the issuance of identity document to call for a voter registration blitz?” the ZLHR letter to Chigumba read.
“It is on this premise, and in line with the electoral commission’s mandate to be accountable and transparent, that you furnish us with the number of people who were issued with identity documents to necessitate voter registration. We remind you that the Constitution, the Freedom of Information Act and the Electoral Act have provisions allowing us to access this information from you,” the letter read.
Zec is yet to respond.
Initially, Zec had announced that the mobile voter registration process would take place from December 6, 2021, but postponed it to February 2022 to allow eligible persons to acquire national identity documents that are requisite for voter registration.
Many aspiring voter registrants are being turned away over lack of identity documents.
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