Zimbabwe Electoral Commission: We are Ready for 2013 Polls
ZEC chairperson, Rita Makarau, said the electoral body is ready to run and supervise the polls if President Mugabe abides by last week’s Supreme Court ruling and sets a July date for the elections.
HARARE — The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) says it is ready to supervise elections if President Robert Mugabe announces a date for the polls on or before July 31 this year. Meanwhile, the electoral body says voter education will now begin Wednesday ahead of the mobile voter registration exercise in preparation for the elections. Speaking during her commission’s consultative meeting with the media in Harare today, ZEC chairperson, Rita Makarau, said the electoral body is ready to run and supervise the polls if President Mugabe abides by last week’s Supreme Court ruling and sets a July date for the elections. Makarau, however, admits that it would be a tight schedule for her commission if polls are to be held on or before the Supreme Court’s 31 July deadline. Makarau said her commission is hopeful that it will deliver a credible poll and an improved verification process of votes would also be in place. In the 2008 polls, the MDC-T claimed its leader, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, won the ballot although figures released after a month of voting by authorities indicated that Mr. Tsvangirai did not garner enough votes to be declared the outright winner. She said her commission is concerned by reports that the voters’ roll is in shambles. Makarau further said voter educators will be dispatched to the country’s districts Wednesday ahead of the mobile voter registration exercise that will start at a date yet to be announced. ZEC said following the gazetting of the use of affidavits as proof of residence for voter registration purposes, measures have been put in place to have officers from the Registrar General’s Office and ZEC appointed commissioners of oath to ensure potential voters are helped easily at registration centres around the country.