By Takura Zhangazha*
There’s a new elephant in Zimbabwe’s political room. And its
called biometric voter registration (BVR).
The government has authorised the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to go
ahead and establish a new voters' roll.
Tenders for the supply of the relevant equipment or BVR kits have since
been issued albeit under what are now controversial/disputed
circumstances.
The main political opposition parties while welcoming the process
of ZEC establishing a new voters roll have expressed misgivings about its lack
of transparency. Under their National
Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA) and through the MDC-T secretary general the
opposition has announced that it shall be organising demonstrations against
what it alleges to be government interference in the BVR kit procurement process.
Civil society, through the Zimbabwe Election Support Network
(ZESN) and the Election Resource Center (ERC) have also welcomed the BVR
process and have stated their intention to closely monitor it.
Beyond the government, ZEC, opposition political parties and
civil society positions, there is little public debate on the matter. And that is not a good thing.
The import of this is that the BVR process will probably be
little understood by the public when it is eventually rolled out. Or that those that will be at the forefront
of mobilising and explaining to the public what BVR means will be those that
are interested in political office, i.e the political parties.
And in this, the front-runner will be the
ruling party not only because it has a ubiquitous grassroots presence but also
because it's commandist political culture brooks no debate of such developments
at the same levels.
So we are still at the ‘nicer’ stage of the BVR process which
is playing itself out in spits and spasms in the local mainstream media. Arguments about tenders and who gets registered
by ZEC for the civic education process or how it will be rolled out are however
only a tip of the iceberg.
What is more significant is how BVR will affect the
traditional meaning of voting for the everyday citizen. The fact that there shall be the use of cameras,
fingerprint machines and specific addresses for specific polling stations will
come as a bit of a shock to long registered voters.
For those that are more familiar with technology and ICTs, especially
in the urban areas, this may be fine save for some trust questions.
For citizens that are living in rural and peri-urban areas
and have been voting for a while, this process will probably be a surprising technological
encounter with the state and ZEC. And because
of the general fear that has accompanied electoral processes in these areas,
there will be questions as to whether the process will not lead to insecurity
and electoral violence.
As a result the BVR will have to involve a lot of persuasion
as to the safety and security of the voter who has previously witnessed or directly
experienced electoral violence. And this
is a hard ask. It means that the ruling
party, largely accused of the same violence in rural and peri-urban areas will
be the one that will be in the mind of the citizen being asked to register to
vote. Either out of fear or by way of
its commandist mobilisation approach.
A key question that will emerge is whether the opposition can
mount counter voter registration mobilisation strategies that assures rural
voters that this will be safe and secure.
Not only for their supporters but also for those that have a general
fear of elections and attendant political processes such as rallies and smaller
meetings.
The onus will be largely on ZEC and civil society to prove
that the BVR process is non-partisan and legitimate in the eyes of the ordinary
voter. And that the taking of pictures,
fingerprints is essentially in order to register and not to victimise anyone in
the event of an unfavourable electoral outcome to any of the political parties
that would rule Zimbabwe.
My view is that unless ZEC and civil society organisations
up their game in relation to educating the public about this new BVR process
and its full import, it is the political parties that will define how it is
eventually publicly viewed.
It is a technical matter on the face of it but it is potentially
of high political effect. This is because
it is a going to define a new trajectory of electioneering and elections.
Regrettably there appears to be little or limited urgency in explaining this
latter point to the people of Zimbabwe. All
of 16 months before the harmonised election.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blgospot.com)
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