Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Justice Rita Makarau has revealed that government has taken over the acquisition of biometric voter registration kits from UNDP.
The BVR kits were meant to allow ZEC to compile an electronic voters roll for the 2018 elections. UNDP had agreed to fund the acquisition of the BVR kits and was in the process of verifying bid documents tendered by potential suppliers.
However, the government has now taken over from UNDP, meaning that the government will be choosing the winning tender. It also means that the government will have to fund the process of paying for the BVR kits, which is reported to be 50 million dollars. Since the government is facing problems is meeting its own financial obligations, this has lead to some speculating that the government took over the whole process in order to choose the winning bidder.
Israeli company Nikuv is one of the bidders, and in the past it has been accused of helping ZanuPF to win the disputed 2013 elections.
Said Makarau:
Let me also reveal that government has now come on board and they have said they will now fully fund the acquiring of the BVR kits,
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