ELECTION WATCH 12/2023
[25th May 2023]
Inspection of Voters Rolls : Times and Places
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission [ZEC] has announced that the voters’ roll to be used for the 2023 harmonised elections will be open for inspection for five days, from Saturday 27th May to Wednesday 31st May, between 0700 hours and 1700 hours [i.e. from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily].
ZEC’s list of centres where rolls can be inspected is available on the Veritas website [link].
Persons who want to inspect the rolls will have to bring identification, i.e.:
- their national ID
- a “waiting pass” showing their picture, or
- their passport.
Four points to note:
1. Voters will have to go to their “ordinary polling stations” [presumably the polling stations where they are registered] in order to inspect the rolls physically. Alternatively, those who have mobile phones will be able to inspect the rolls using the USSD code *265# for both NetOne and Econet subscribers.
2. The cut-off date for the rolls was 28th April 2023. Hence only those who were registered on the rolls on or before that date will be listed on the rolls that are open for inspection.
3. According to a later announcement by the Chief Elections Officer, people will not be able to register as voters at the inspection centres. Anyone who is not registered will have to go to one of the usual registration centres to be registered. A list of these can be found on the Veritas website [link].
4. Although ZEC’s announcement does not say so, voters rolls will presumably still be open for inspection after the five-day period has elapsed, at ZEC’s provincial and district offices in terms of section 21 of the Electoral Act.
Comments
Rolls are not yet final
As we have said, only those people who were registered on or before the 28th April will find their names listed on the rolls. This does not mean that citizens who become registered after that date will not be able to vote in the harmonised elections. According to section 26A of the Electoral Act voters rolls are closed for the purpose of an election two days after the proclamation calling the election is published. Anyone who before that date is registered as a voter, or has lodged a claim to be registered, is entitled to have their name put on the roll and to vote in the election.
Hence ZEC’s announcement was not quite correct when it said that the voters roll to be used for the harmonised elections was open for inspection. The voters roll is not yet complete; it is a work in progress, and voters’ names may still be added to it.
Rolls cannot really be inspected
It seems from ZEC’s announcement that voters will be able to find out if their names are on the voters roll for their polling station, but that is all. They will not be able to examine the rolls to see, for example, if someone else’s name appears on a roll or is missing from it. This is not really “inspection” as envisaged by section 21 of the Electoral Act, which states that voters rolls are public documents and are open to inspection by the public, and moreover that persons inspecting rolls are entitled to make written notes of anything contained in them.
It is to be hoped that at some stage ZEC will allow members of the public to exercise their right of inspection in the fullest sense.
Not enough notice, not enough time for inspection
ZEC’s announcement that rolls would be open for inspection was published on the 23rd May, only four days before the inspection exercise was due to start. The announcement may not have reached many people outside the main urban areas. Also, voters rolls will be open for inspection for only five days, which may not give people living in rural areas much time to travel to their nearest inspection centre, assuming they know where it is situated. Even though the rolls will be probably be open for inspection after the five-day period at ZEC provincial and district offices, these are not convenient for most people. It would be better if the five-day period could be extended.
