Consolidated national, constituency and ward voters are consolidated from polling station voters rolls, only for administrative and academic purposes; they are not used for purposes of polling or voting in any election.
Only the polling station voters roll is used for purposes of polling or voting at polling stations in all three of the elections that constitute Zimbabwe’s harmonised general election, namely, the local authority election, the parliamentary election and the presidential election.
The polling station voters roll is not extracted from a ward voters roll or from a constituency voters roll or from a national voter roll; no, the polling station voters roll is the source voters roll compiled from voter registration by voters in a polling station area. Zimbabwe’s voters roll is decentralised to the village level in rural areas, and to the street level in urban areas.
It’s a pity that its management and control is centralised at the national level; it would be far better, from an administrative and efficiency point of view in line with best governance practice, for the polling station voters roll to be managed locally at the municipality level; with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission playing the important role of regulator to ensure quality control, statutory and constitutional compliance.
Anyhow, the point to underscore and underline about Zimbabwe’s four voters roll is that what comes first – and is used for polling or voting in any election as will happen on 23 August this Wednesday – is the polling station voters roll. The ward voters roll, constituency voters roll and national voters roll are each and all consolidated from polling station voters rolls, and used only for administrative and academic purposes!
