By WALPE
The Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE) calls on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to ensure proper functioning of its designated voter registration centers to afford every citizen the chance to participate in the exercise.
This comes as five WALPE members on July 16 2021 failed to register at the registration center at Makombe Building after being referred from one Harare office to another as ZEC officers gave numerous excuses that hindered them from participating in the exercise.
The WALPE members first attended to Makombe Building at the Registrar General’s office where they were advised that ZEC staff were off duty before being referred to Cecil House Provincial Offices but still failed to register because the Biometric Voter Registration machine there was down.
Our members were greatly inconvenienced and now have to reschedule the visit in order to register to vote.
WALPE affirms that it is every citizen’s right, especially women to register to vote and secure their participation in the 2023 elections as enshrined in Section 67 (3) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
Increased women political participation is at the core of our main goals as an organization as it is fundamental to the achievement of provisions of Sections 17, 56 and 80 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which guarantees gender equality.
We believe that voter registration is an ongoing exercise and as WALPE we therefore urge ZEC:
To effectively communicate its activities through various media, highlighting any adjustments, change of venues or any other pertinent issues to avoid inconveniencing women political participation in any electoral processes.
Urgently address the technological glitches affecting the Harare Centre and any other centers which we may not be aware of and resume operations.
Ensure that there are representatives attending to citizens at all their centers in line with government’s directions on staff retainment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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