ZEC says `no` to extension of voter registration

ZEC says `no` to extension of voter registration
By The guardian reporter

ZEC chairman Khatibu Mwinyichande
The Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) has said that it has no plans to give more time for voters to register in the permanent register despite poor turnout to do so.

ZEC chairman Khatibu Mwinyichande said this when responding to a request from the Civic United Front (CUF) and Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA), who had urged the commission to give more time for people to register as most had failed to do so due to problems associated with the issuing of Zanzibar residential identity cards.

Mwinyichande said there was no chance of repeating the exercise because it had been conducted twice. He said the aim was to register 550,000 people.

“It’s not possible to extend voter registration because we had a special budget for it and we cannot get extra funds for the exercise,” he said.

He said ZEC had already registered 382,958 voters, equivalent to 75.5 per cent of the target, but still smaller than 460,921 who registered in 2005.

CUF publicity director in Zanzibar Salim Bimani said most woul-be voters failed to register due to bureaucracy in getting residential identity cards.

CHADEMA deputy secretary general Hamad Mussa Yusuf called on ZEC to give more time for people to register so that they exercise their constitutional right to elect leaders.