Terrence Mawawa Mwenezi | Local election monitoring organisations and pressure groups have slammed the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), for manipulating the voter registration exercise in the Mwenezi East Constituency.
ZEC, seen by political observers as grossly biased towards Zanu PF, has released a shocking figure of 47159 registered voters, triggering fears the whole process is fraudulent.

In a statement released by Community Tolerance Reconciliation and Development on Friday, the outreach exercise carried out by ZEC in Mwenezi East Constituency, between February 23 and March 23, was dubious and calculated to tilt the election results in favour of Zanu PF.
“We are puzzled to learn that 47 159 voters were registered in Mwenezi East Constituency. This effectively means the whole process lacks sincerity.

It is practically impossible to have such a massive number of voters in a rural constituency. The by-election is just a dead rubber because of outright rigging,” said COTRAD in a statement.
A Heal Zimbabwe Trust official said ZEC’ s refusal to engage key stakeholders in the voter registration process exposed the commission’s gross incompetence.
“There is need to overhaul the ZEC setup.There is overt bias towards Zanu PF within the ZEC structures,”said the Heal Zimbabwe Trust official.

According to figures released by ZEC, 62 polling stations have been established in the constituency.
“The voter outreach programme went on smoothly.We can confirm that 47 159 voters were registered for the coming Mwenezi East By-election,”said a ZEC official.