DEMOCRATIC Union of Zimbabwe (DUZ) president, Robert Chapman has red-flagged inefficiencies of Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)’s voter registration system after failing to find his entry among eligible voters.
In an interview with NewZimbabwe.com, Chapman called on citizens to inspect the voters’ roll during the given window to ensure they are not disenfranchised by having their names omitted.
ZEC opened its voters’ roll for inspection on May 27 and is expected to close May 31.
Chapman claimed he recently went to check for his credentials on the ZEC list of eligible voters, and was surprised his name was missing.
“DUZ wants to encourage citizens to take advantage of the voters’ roll verification process, please do that.
“There are issues that have come up, even for myself which l am going to go to my polling station here to verify whether my registration is still active and still in the correct polling station,” said Chapman, who was visiting his hometown Chinhoyi.
“When l went earlier to verify my voter registration number with my ID (identity document) it came back as invalid. Now l don’t know if that was due to network or due to the system on their (ZEC) side.
“… citizens should really take advantage of this exercise and verify that their information is correct and IDs are correct.”
Commenting on the delay in President Emmerson Mnangagwa proclaiming the 2023 harmonised election date, Chapman decried it was a way of rigging polls.
“There are many ways to essentially rig elections or creating a disadvantage to opposition, and this should be generally expected,” he said.
Citizens have only two days to register to vote after election date is announced.
The DUZ president called on the electorate to vote his party’s candidates as they were “not tonnage by cancerous corruption” which has resulted in service delivery collapse across the country.
He alleged both Zanu PF and Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) candidates have chequered histories dating back to the 2009 government of national unity (GNU) between then president Robert Mugabe and then MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
DUZ, Chapman said, offers a new alternative government hinged on three fundamental pillars of prosperity, justice and modernisation.
