'National Documents Result In Low BVR Turn Out'

LACK of national documents among local citizens is one reason why a larger portion of people are not registered as voters in Bulawayo, local Civil Society Organisations leading efforts to drive more Zimbabweans to register in the ongoing Bio-metric Voter Registration exercise revealed this week.

BULAWAYO — LACK of national documents among local citizens is one reason why a larger portion of people are not registered as voters in Bulawayo, local Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) leading efforts to drive more Zimbabweans to register in the ongoing Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise revealed this week.

Leaders of the CSOs said in a press conference held at the Bulawayo Press Club on Monday this week, that many people in Bulawayo and Matabeleland are undocumented and cannot register to vote due to an absence of official identification such as long birth certificates and national identity cards.

Various situations, in which individuals do not have or have lost access to their documents, contribute to the failure of many people to participate in the registration blitz which has been ongoing since September 2017 ending in February 8, 2018 (tomorrow). 

"‘There are a lot of undocumented people in Bulawayo and Matabeleland. Most of them are adults who also have children who are teenagers that do not have documents as well," said Samkeliso Khumalo, director at the Women Institute for Leadership Development (WILD).

More than 6000 people were turned away from registering in the ongoing BVR exercise and some of those who were turned away are Zimbabweans of foreign descent who do not have long birth certificates required for registration.  

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 In some cases, these citizens do not own national identity cards because they do not see the need to possess one.

 "People are not interested in having IDs as it is no longer a force matter to carry them nowadays as it was before," Khumalo said. 

Some people do not have identity documents because they cannot apply for them as a result of the death of their parents during the Gukurahundi era.

Other panelists at the conference noted that the responsible bodies for national documents were a reason why some people do not have the required documents.

Director of the Election Resource Centre, Tawanda Chimhini said, "The Registrar’s office is not friendly, does not respond to the needs of the people and is not cooperative."

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People see no point in going to the offices because they will not be helped by the people who work at the Registrar’s office, according to Chimhini, and the offices of national documents serve few people in a day.

"How can a national office help 30 people only in day? This is what is happening in most offices that assist people with national documents," he said. 

The CSOs leaders encouraged people to have registration documents so that they can be responsible citizens who take part in their country’s affairs.

Rashid Mahiya from Heal Zimbabwe Trust said:

"The administration of the President should make sure that Registrar’s offices do their work of issuing national documents to the people just like what the President has said unless if they are not working under him." – @The_CBNews 

Editing by Julia Thomas and Divine Dube