OPPOSITION parties have alleged the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) is a captured institution after it announced the government has now taken over the procurement of biometric voter registration (BVR) kits from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
People’s Democratic Party president, Tendai Biti told a Coalition of Democrats (Code) meeting yesterday that the fact that the government, all of a sudden, has found money to buy the kits shows that Zec is captured.
“What happened yesterday (the Zec announcement) is State capture. Zanu is simply confirming that they have captured Zec, they have captured this BVR. There is nothing that we don’t know there and I said earlier, our response is not equal to the level of abuse,” he said.
“I don’t believe we have done enough, that we have mobilised enough to push Zanu PF to reform. So, if we decided to go into the streets, into the courts, into the churches, we should be able to get the reforms that we deserve. Chief among those are a brand new voters’ roll, the demilitarisation of our elections, our elections are run by the junta, our elections are run by Nikuv and it’s stationed at KGVI.”
Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe president, Elton Mangoma said it was time to do away with the voters’ roll and ask people to vote using their national identity cards, as Zec had allegedly proved that it was captured by Zanu PF.
MDC-T spokesperson, Obert Gutu, said: “It’s a public secret that the regime is bankrupt and that they don’t have money to buy BVR kits worth millions. There is obviously something fishy and extremely sinister going on there.”
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn) said the importance of transparency in acquiring the BVR kits could never be overstated.
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“It is vital that the government and Zec provide details of the takeover from UNDP regarding the procurement of the BVR kits and how the process will be funded given the limited time left before the 2018 elections.
“The involvement of technical partners with experience in assisting various other countries in implementing the BVR processes will improve confidence and trust, which have always been an issue in the electoral process in Zimbabwe,” Zesn director, Rindai Chipfunde-Vava, said.
