There was outrage across the country on Tuesday when the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s chairperson Justice Rita Makarau announced that there is not going to be any extension for the voter registration exercise, a development which yesterday saw the Faceless Gladiator Baba Jukwa calling on other political parties to tighten their screws on the ZEC. Makarau yesterday said the exercise would end on Tuesday midnight and there will not be any extension. This came at a time when when many citizens were upon arriving at their usual polling station, told that they should present themselves at a different station previously unknown to them. One man who declined being named told ZimEye he arrived at the Showgrounds polling station in Kadoma only to be told that he should present himself at Mazowe at Mukosa polling station, Ward 2. The ZEC yesterday admitted these problems but chose only to extend the period by a paltry 7 hours to midnight on the same day.
Political analysts have voiced that the problems acknowledged by the ZEC may be purely manufactured.
ZEC’s Deputy Chairperson Joyce Kazembe said that due to the problems, ZEC has now extended the registration exercise until midnight Tuesday. Hundreds took to social networking website Facebook to express their disappointment.
“I am Zimbabwean even if I don’t like Mugabe, vandirambidzirei? Saka mazuwa ese aya what will they be doing?,” said one Luke Mhlanga Tuesday night.
Under fire from Baba Jukwa…ZEC’s Chair Rita Makarau
While the full number of people who failed to register could not be immediately ascertained, it was yesterday estimated it goes into tens of thousands from various centres across the country.
Full Article: Baba Jukwa Angered as ZEC Refuses To Extend Voter Registration | ZimEye.