ZIMBABWE ELECTION SUPPORT NETWORK
BIOMETRIC VOTER REGISTRATION UPDATE END OF PHASE 3 - NUMBER 12
8 December 2017 – ZESN continues to observe the (Biometric Voter Registration) BVR blitz which
entered the fourth and last phase on 4 December until 19 December 2017. At the conclusion of
Phase 3, ZEC indicated that a total of 3,532,577 had been registered cumulatively from Phase 1.
Despite repeated efforts by ZESN, the voter registration statistics provided by ZEC are not
disaggregated by sex, age and geographic area. It is therefore not clear at this stage how many
women, men, youths and persons with disabilities have been registered. Given that slightly over
half of the projected 7 million registrants have been registered over the last three phases, the
provision of disaggregated data on registered voters would be helpful in assisting targeted voter
education and mobilisation efforts.
Observation of Phase 3 data transfer and transmission
The data transfer and transmission process was conducted differently at centres where ZESN
observed in the 10 provinces. For instance, instead of transferring data from the kits to the USB
drive at each registration centre, ZESN observed that in Mashonaland East at Women’s Affairs
Building in Chivhu, in Mashonaland Central at Madziwa Secondary School in Shamva North and in
Harare at Highfield High 1, supervisors brought together registration officers to a central place and
conducted the data transfer for all centres simultaneously. In Kwekwe at W Section Play Centre,
Amaveni Primary School A and B data transfer was conducted at each registration centre with all
processes duly followed. However, BVR kits in Kwekwe, Redcliff and Chegutu Civic Centre did not
have USB drives by close of registration and the supervisors brought the USBs for the data transfer
process which is different from observations from other provinces where the BVR kits had assigned
USB drives upon delivery from phase 2.
The ZESN observer at PWD Luveve Deport in Bulawayo reported that registration data that had
been captured between 18 November 2017 and 1 December 2017 could not be exported owing to
the fact that a ZEC technician had exported data from one of the BVR kits, ahead of schedule,
without the knowledge of the registration officers operating the kit. The incident, which happened
on the 18th of November 2017, ultimately affected the data export process at the end of the phase.
As a consequence registration officials recorded the registration data for the affected period on the
appropriate forms.
In Masvingo data export was conducted at the under the supervision of ZEC officials at the
respective registration centers such as Bikita Minerals in ward 30.