How is the national electoral register created?
Zimbabwe
Final Report, General Elections of 31 July 2013, African Union Commission (2013), Pg 14
Schedule 6 of the 2013 Constitution, provides that for the purposes of the first elections, the Registrar-General of Voters (RGV) is responsible for the registration of voters and compiling voters’ rolls, under the supervision of the ZEC.
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2013 Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network Report, Pg. 25 & 28
The voters’ roll which, in many ways, is the essence of the poll and is the poll’s foundational document, is compiled by the Registrar-General of Voters (RGV) under the supervision of the electoral commission which can only supervise the RGV as he discharges this function. This applies to both the continuous voter registration as well as the mobile voter registration exercise. The process was inadequate and ZEC had no choice but to go into the election with a voters’ roll that it had not been responsible for compiling. The new Constitution provides for ZEC to have total control of the voters’ roll, including its compilation and any work done on the voters’ roll, however for the purpose of this election, the Registrar General would continue to play his role in voter registration.
Voter registration
Voter registration in Zimbabwe is continuous with voters free to register at district offices in between elections (section 17A of the Electoral Act). The Registrar-General is supposed to update the voters’ roll using these new registrants by deleting dead people from the roll, which should be done seamlessly as the Registrar-General of Voters is also the Registrar-General of deaths.
