State Minister in Chief Minister`s Office Hamza Hassan Juma
The Government of Zanzibar has said people who failed to register in the permanent voters’ register will be able to do so early next year before the general elections.
State Minister in Chief Minister’s Office Hamza Hassan Juma said this here yesterday when briefing journalists on the way forward after the postponement of the registration exercise in Pemba. He urged those yet to register to wait for the second and third round next year.
“The Zanzibar Electoral Commission will maintain its election timetable; so it is upon those who failed to register to seize the opportunity next year by getting the required documentation,” said Hamza.
He said those who wish to be registered must ensure that they have residence identities by the end of this year.
ZEC Chairman Khatibu Mwinyichande at the same news conference said the commission would follow its election timetable. He said there would be no repeat of the exercise in the areas where the exercise has been completed.
Mwinyichande said politicians should be blamed for causing chaos during the exercise. He said the chaos has caused huge losses, as ZEC had already paid the registration officers for the job.
In recent weeks, police here seized dozens of landmines at Chake Chake in Pemba Island in a series of incidents linked to Isles’ political rivalry, leading to postponement of the registration exercise.
In halting the exercise indefinitely a fortnight ago, ZEC Director Salum Kassim Ali cited poor security at most registration stations in Pemba.
The latest developments in the Isles’ politics drew condemnation from Western foreign missions. In a joint statement last week, which later the Government of Zanzibar brushed off, warning against intereference in its internal affairs, they wanted the two Governments – the Union and that of Zanzibar – to ensure that people were given the right to vote in the 2010 general elections.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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