Opportunity and Risk in the Proposed Polling Station-Based
Voters’ Roll
By Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)
One of the major features of the proposed electoral reforms is the possible
introduction of a localised voting system which will be conducted using polling
station-based voters’ rolls. This means a voter will only vote at the polling-station
at which his or her name appears on the voters’ roll. This is significantly different
from the present system whereby voters can vote at any polling station within the
ward.
These changes will, however, only come into effect if the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission is satisfied that all polling-station voters’ rolls have been adequately
prepared. Given the imminence of the Constitutional Referendum, it is highly
unlikely that this system will be used in that plebiscite.
Supporters of the polling station-based voters’ roll argue that it will prevent
instances that have occurred in past elections when voters from others areas
have been moved to other areas in a bid to bolster the fortunes of a particular
party’s candidate in that area. If a voter can only vote at a polling station where
their name is registered on the voters’ roll, it will mean those who are brought
into the area to artificially inflate support for a particular party or candidate will
be prevented from voting at that polling station.
Supporters of this system also argue that it will prevent double-voting whereby a
voter can move from one polling-station to another within the same ward in order
to vote more than once in the same election.
For these reasons, a polling station-based voters’ roll seems to be a plausible
move that would add credibility and transparency to the voting system. This is a
theoretical proposition, however, which must be measured in the context of the
realities of politics and voting in Zimbabwe. It is therefore important to consider
the risks inherent in this system.
The first risk is that such a system might make it more easy to use the tactic of
pre-election displacement of voters from the areas where their specific polling
station is located. If a person can only vote at a specified polling station, the easy
way to ensure they do not vote is to displace them or otherwise prevent them
from reaching that polling station. If displaced in advance of an election, it may
be proposed that such voters should be able to use the facility of postal voting.
The problem however is that the facility of postal voting is restricted to persons
who are outside the country on government business. ZESN recommends
relaxation of postal voting rules, so that the facility is more widely available to
persons who cannot for any reason be at the polling station on voting day. This
will be come more important if the polling-station based voters’ roll is used.
The second risk is that a polling station-based voters’ roll system increases
opportunities for post-election retribution. In the past, voters have been targeted
for punishment for voting for the wrong party or candidate by losing contestants.
One approach was to target constituencies where a contestant would have lost –
that gave rise to suspicions that the population in the constituency had voted
‘wrongly’ in that they would have voted for the opponent. Acts of violence have
been recorded in post-election periods. Now, the risk is that with a more localised
and specific polling-station based voters’ roll, it will be even easier to identify
voting patterns at small local levels. It will be easy to see which villages or
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