Zimbabwe voters’ roll to open for inspection from 19-29 May

Zimbabwe will move one step closer to the elections next month when it opens its provisional voters’ roll for inspection from 19 to 29 May.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chief Utoile Silaigwana said the inspection will allow registered voters to check if their details were captured correctly and also to enable those who have changed addresses to effect the changes as well as to enable those who died to be removed from the roll.

Zimbabwe is using biometric voter registration for the first time.

The election date has not been announced yet but according to the constitution Zimbabwe must hold its polls between 21 July and 21 August.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has until 8 July to proclaim elections if they are to be held on the last day, 21 August.

The President must allow a minimum of 44 days and a maximum of 84 days between proclamation and polling.

Key amendments to the Electoral Act have not been effected and Parliament is only resuming next week, on 8 May.

Two cases seeking to bar Mnangagwa from proclaiming the elections are before the courts.

In one case judgment was reserved by the Constitutional Court after two parties sought to bar Mnangagwa from calling elections until the Political Parties Finance Act is amended to enable the government to finance all political parties in the country.

There are now 124 registered political parties.

In the other case, an opposition party claims that the country has no president so no one can call elections because Mnangagwa came in through a coup.

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