BY TICHAONA MATARUSE
The Office of the MP for Hwange Central is appealing to all residents in the constituency who are not yet registered voters to urgently approach their local councilors and benefit from the ongoing voter registration blitz.
The Office of the MP last week launched its own voter awareness and registration campaign in partnership with the local ward councilors.
Hwange Central Constituency has 17 wards.
A spokesperson at the Office of the MP Thulani Moyo said they were targeting all wards in the campaign set to continue until early 2023.
“We are targeting all wards in our constituency and the voter registration campaign will continue for the next several weeks until early 2023. During its initial week of operation, only Ward 12 Urban managed to take advantage of the voter registration initiative. All registered voters who need to transfer from their respective polling stations must also urgently approach their local councilors so as to personally benefit from this opportunity with support from the Office of the MP,”said Moyo.
In an interview with Councilor for Ward 15 Makwika/Ingagula Township in Hwange Local Board Lovemore Ncube who represents Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) , welcomed the initiative.
“I would like to applaud the Honorable MP for taking this initiative,” said Ncube.
“We have discovered that a lot of people, in particular the youths, are not registered. The residents are happy and are coming forward to this initiative. As a community leader I have mobilised other leaders for door to door mobilisation for this blitz and the response is excellent.
There are over 1 500 voters in my ward (but) as it is, some were complaining that the ZEC offices are too far and they need a minimum of US$4 to and from, so the blitz is a blessing.”
Ward 5 CCC Councilor for Hwange Local Board Tendai Sibanda also welcomed and applauded the MP for the initiative but raised concern over how young people were so reluctant to register to vote.
“There are some people who have taken the registration seriously, especially the elderly,” said Sibanda.
“The young ones are so reluctant; they need people with patience to persuade and plead with them to go and register to vote. They no longer trust the voter’s registration from what they get from social media. Now that the schools have closed with the young who have turned 18, the MP is providing transport every Thursday for people to go and register.”
She added: “As at the end of 30 May 2022 there were 931 registered voters in my ward. We have new stands where houses are dotted. Some stands are not yet built. From the electoral boundary delimitation, the proposal is that my ward will borrow from ward 6 and we are waiting for the final outcome. I’m yet to get the figures as after the 30 of May and know how many people are registered in my ward.”