The Election Resource Centre (ERC), a local watchdog, has bemoaned the inaccessibility of the electronic voters’ roll saying it will be difficult to know if the delimitation process is being done the right way.
ERC says the US$1 per page translating to US$187 000 for the entire hard copy of the voters’ roll is out of reach for many hence the need for the commission to avail the electronic copy which is pegged at US$200.
In an interview with Open Parly the ERC Executive director Babra Ontibile Bhebe said ZEC told them that they are open to dialogue but encouraged them to be patient. Bhebhe said:
The Commission stated that it is not averse to engaging or dialoguing with the ERC but requested the organization to be patient until the completion of the delimitation of electoral boundaries exercises due year-end.
… people cannot have access to the voters roll to be used for the delimitation of constituencies, they lack the ability to participate meaningfully in the process and hold the Commission to account for whatever outcomes of that process.
Without a national voters roll publicly accessible at reasonable cost it is impossible to know if the boundaries created by the process have followed the law and if indeed votes are equal.
Opposition parties and Civic Society Organisations (CSOs) are on record demanding for an auditable voters’ roll maintaining that access to it would enhance the credibility of the election process.