AS Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)’s delimitation process commences, Bulawayo province is likely to lose some of its parliamentary seats in the next election, Zim Morning Post can reveal.
This was revealed by ZEC’s voter registration and delimitation director, Time Madondo, during a workshop in Harare that was meant to educate voters on the work of the electoral body.
Speaking to this publication, Madondo said: “Some of the seats will be merged to form one constituency due to the continuous dwindling of registered voters in the province, leaving them with few representatives in the Parliament.”
He further said there was a possibility of splitting into two some constituencies in Harare, Midlands, Mashonaland East and Masvingo provinces due to an increased number of voters there.
“In Harare, we had Harare South with over 70 000 registered voters, Epworth with slightly close to 69 000 while Budiriro had over 40 000 voters, a situation we think needs to be addressed in the next election,” Madondo said.
Madondo said parliamentary seats are allocated according to the number of registered voters, with every constituency expected to have not more than 27 000 voters.
“We realised that Bulawayo had the lowest number of registered voters in the 2018 harmonised election with 211 276, meaning that some of the constituencies will be merged,” Madondo added.
Madondo’s comments further confirmed the report by this publication revealing that the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC would lose some seats to Zanu PF stronghold provinces.
Bulawayo currently has 12 MPs, while Harare has 29.
“Not only are we going to see changes in Parliament, but also in some councils where we have been seeing a huge population growth; more wards will be created during the 2023 elections,” he added.
According to statistical reports following the 2018 harmonised elections, 60% of the voters were from rural areas where most of Zanu PF’s support base is, while 40% are in urban centres where opposition parties hold sway.
The dwindling of registered voters in urban areas would, therefore, mean that most seats would now be retained by the ruling party.
Madondo, however, expressed concern over failure by lobbyist groups and politicians to mobilise people to register to vote.
“Very few people are registering as voters and we will only see it happening towards elections, a situation that is likely to see the dwindling of voters and politicians, and civil society groups only get vocal towards elections, which makes it difficult to mobilise as many voters as we can.”
Voting should be a process and not an event, meaning the mobilisation of resources and registering of voters should be taken seriously all year round.
