A million and more
The Research and Advocacy Unit, “outlawed” yesterday from holding a public voter’s roll audit says an eye-popping 2 million Zimbabweans failed to have names included on the voter’s roll during the voter registration exercise, while another 1 million mysterious names appear in the register.
A young man doing some degree at the Chinhoyi University of Technology told me the other day he went along with his dad to register, and when they got to the queue they were given “tickets” with numbers apparently to ensure no wise guys jumped the queue.
But the young man complained that while his dad was given a ticket numbered 220, he was given one numbered 651, never mind that he was standing behind his dad!
He thought it was a bad joke and now he finds himself missing his democratic right to vote!
He is certainly one of many of the 2 million RAU says will not vote despite being eligible, and as Tsvangirai has said, no matter who wins, this election will not be legitimate.
How can it be when many people will not be able to vote, not because they have lost faith in the whole process of elections being the only way to determine their future, but because the system literally shut them out.