ZEC admits it will register 5 m and not 7 m - worse is yet to come, it will not release verified voters' roll

The trouble with Zimbabweans is that we are our own worst enemies because we never stop to think anything through.

When it was clear toward the end of the 2008 to 2013 GNU that MDC had failed to implement even one democratic reform SADC leaders proposed that the 2013 elections must be postponed to allow reforms to be implemented. It is insane to contest an election which you know is flawed and illegal.
Sadly, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends paid no heed to the advice and contested the July 2013 elections. We all know that happened next; Zanu PF blatantly rig the vote. The tragedy here is many Zimbabweans have failed to learn from MDC’s betrayal during the GNU and then in contesting flawed elections against the sound advice of SADC leaders. If any Zimbabweans had learnt from those events then they would have realised that SADC leaders were right, it is futile taking part in a flawed electoral process.

The on-going voter registration exercise is flawed.

“Zimbabwe’s electoral body said Wednesday over 4.7 million people have registered to vote in next year’s elections during a two-month registration blitz that ended Dec. 20,” reported Spotlight Zimbabwe.

“ZEC had initially targeted to register 7 million voters for next year’s polls but it later admitted that the figure was unrealistic and revised it down to about 5 million.”

There was no reason why the voter registration exercise was not three years ago instead of eight months before the elections. Anyone with any common sense could see that was no way ZEC, even with the best good will in the world, was going to register 7 million voters in the four months allocated for the task.

Now the authorities are admitting that 2 million or nearly 30% of the potential voters will be denied the vote, just like that!

The regime had already said it was not going to allow Zimbabweans in the diaspora the opportunity to vote. Some people have said there are as many as 2 million potential voters in the diaspora. So, already this flawed process has already disenfranchised 50 to 60% Zimbabweans.
The real big test is yet to come. ZEC will not have the time to consolidate the data, cross checked and release a verified voters’ roll at least one month before voting day as demanded by the constitution.

“The state-run Herald newspaper quoted ZEC acting chairperson Emmanuel Magadu as saying that they expected to extend the blitz by a month to January 2018,” continued the report.

“The electoral body has since requested 7.9 million U.S. dollars to fund the extended registration period.”

So, the four months long voter registration exercise alone at US$ 7.9 m per month costed a nearly $32 million and yet at the end of the day we fail to produce end product – a verified voters’ roll.
The July 2013 elections were held with NO verified voters’ roll and this allowed Zanu PF to blatantly rig the vote. Nearly one million voters were denied the vote that year because the details were not in the constituency voters roll, something they would have picked up and corrected if the voters’ roll had been released timeously. That year the number of polling stations was increased from 2 000 to 9 000 just days before voting day and there was evidence of Zanu PF youth being bussed from one polling station to the next casting multiple votes. No one could verify who these youths were because the was no audited voters’ roll to start with. The verified voters’ roll was the missing smoking gun to prove the July 2013 elections were rigged.

It is already clear that ZEC will NOT release a verified voters’ roll for next year’s elections.
There are many, many other serious issues, other than the lack of a verified voters’ roll, that we such be concerned about; such as the lack of a free media; the failure to implement the democratic reforms to free the Police, Judiciary to carry out their statutory duties without fear or favour; the lack of money among the opposition whilst Zanu PF is loaded with cash looted from Marange; etc. All these things confirm one thing – next year’s elections will NOT be free, fair and credible.

“Of course, they (2018 elections) can be postponed,” Dr Mandaza explain to Violet Gonda in April 2017.  “In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit. I went there.

“I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws.

“And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done’.

If Zimbabweans did not know of SADC leaders’ advice to MDC leaders before the 2013 elections; they know it now. This time SADC leaders are speaking directly to ordinary Zimbabwe not to take part in an election process they know is flawed and illegal.

I agree there is little you and me can do to stop MDC and the rest in the opposition camp from contesting the elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process should be. They have their hearts and eyes set on the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away to entice them to take part; they have given up on the national struggle for free and fair elections. By participating they are giving the flawed process credibility, they know that and do not care. By participating, we too will give the process credibility.

Zimbabweans must ignore the on-going voter registration exercise, do not attend any political rallies by they Zanu PF or opposition and come voting day, do not bother to vote. Foreign election observers, especial from SADC country, know they too will have nothing to do with an election process in which the authorities have failed to release something as basic and fundamental as a verified voters’ roll! These observers know this election is a sham, they are not stupid!


If the ordinary Zimbabweans out there are serious about having a meaningful say in the governance of the country and meaningful economic recovery then they must take up the fight for free, fair and credible elections and not leave it to the opposition. People like Tsvangirai sold-out on reforms during the GNU and ever since they have been pursuing their own selfish enrichment agenda. The opposition will be please to win the few seats Zanu PF gives away next year just as they were pleased with the few seats in the July 2013 elections. 

It is us, the ordinary people who have paid dearly for having Zanu PF back in power the last five years. The nation will pay dearly if next year’s elections are rigged with our blessing because we gave the flawed process credibility by participating!