Tsvangirai orders Biti to release $30 million poll cash

Prime Minister vMorgan Tsvangirai has ordered Finance minister Tendai Biti to immediately release about $30 million for the roll-out of the delayed mobile voter registration exercise.  

A fuming Tsvangirai yesterday convened a tense 45-miute meeting attended by acting Finance minister Theresa Makone, Justice and Legal Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission deputy chairperson Joyce Kazembe and Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede to seek explanation for the delays in commencing the crucial voter registration process ahead of polls expected this year.

Deputy chairperson for the Electoral Commission, Joyce Kazembe has been reported saying that voter registation has been delayed due to the Treasury not disbursing the funds that were needed to get the process underway.

The voter registration process should have commenced this week on the 3rd January.

In a telephone interview Joyce Kazembe confirmed to the US based Bloomberg that the process meant to remove deceased people from voters roll  while also registering new voters was meant to start on 3 January and last three months.

In recent months MDC-T  and civic society groups have lamented the existence on the electoral roll of deceasesd people such as the former Rhodesian Prime Minister, Ian Douglas Smith.

"Those people who are proved to be deceased will be removed during the registration process, while newly eligible voters will be added," Kazembe said. "Money hasn't been forthcoming from the Treasury department, so we're now waiting," she added.

It is reported that there are 5.5million voters on the voters roll. The state controlled Herald newspaper quoted a ZEC spokesperson as saying that US$200 million would be needed to hold both the constitutional referendum as well as elections.

President, Robert Mugabe had hinted at a March 2013 election but this was described as an unworkable target by the opposition,  civic society and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). SADC executed a deal between Zanu-PF and then opposition MDC after the bloody 2008 election. Terms of the agreement state the Zimbabweans must accede a new constitution before the Presidential and Parliamentary elections can be held.

Analysts cite Mugabe's departure for the Far East on 28 December 2012 for  a month long holiday as a sure sign that a March poll is out the window. Current indications are that the elections will be held as far as June 2013.

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