The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is not making it easy for the independent election watchdog Election Resource Centre (ERC) to do its job.
ZEC has allegedly demanded R3.3 million (US$187,000) from ERC to access the voters' roll.
This claim was made by ERC director Babra Bhebe when her organisation requested access to the hard copy of the roll. Their request to the ZEC was met with a demand for the exorbitant fee.
"We are highly concerned as ZEC has been reluctant to hand over the electronic voters' roll to stakeholders ahead of the 2023 general elections, which leaves us with more questions than answers," she said.
"When we requested access to the voters' roll we were shocked by the high figure demanded by ZEC.The amount [is used to justify their] excuses about releasing even the electronic roll, [which] would be cheaper to access."
The fees demanded by ZEC for the hard copy raises eyebrows after discrepancies in the roll were noted. Over 170,000 voters were allegedly moved to different constituencies, including [different] polling stations, under unknown circumstances.
This was said by independent election watchdogs early this year, after ZEC suspended officials due to allegations of leaking a copy of the voters' roll to unnamed stakeholders.
Opposition parties have voiced their displeasure, as the unavailability of the voters' roll allegedly shows that the ZEC is partisan, whereas it should be an independent commission.
Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) deputy secretary for elections, Ellen Shiriyedenga, described the move as a major blow to transparency in the polls next year, adding that it would be difficult to scrutinise the document ahead of the elections to avoid electoral theft.
The electoral commission has, however, maintained that they will provide both hard and electronic copies as per the law to whoever requests it.
"Our reluctance to release the voters' roll is above board, and ERC is misguided, as the fees charged were stipulated following the [publication of a] statutory instrument which gazetted the fee," said the ZEC's chief elections officer, Utoile Silaigwana.
