Zimbabwe: Registrar General Office

Updated April 2010

The Registrar-General's Office is a department in the Ministry of Home Affairs (Veritas 2010). In the past the Electoral Supervisory Commission (abolished in 2005) was responsible for supervising the elections, while the Registrar-General's Office executed the organisation and conduct of the elections.

One of the austensable reasons for the establishment of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) was to remove the execution of the elections from the hands of civil servants and place it in the hands of a professional body independent of government control. This in turn would still the recurring accusations of partisanship and polls manipulation on the part of the Registrar-General's Office (Molokele 2005). This notwithstanding, while the ZEC is tasked with the supervision of voter registration and the compilation of the voters' rolls in the Constitution (1980, 61(4)), but the conduct of these operations is undertaken by the Registrar-General's Office in accordance with the Electoral Act (Chapter 2:13, 18).

In the 2005 elections the Registrar-General's Office undertook voter registeration, compiled the voters roll and supplied staff for the ZEC. These activities drew fire from civil society actors. The ZESN found fault with the opaqueness of the process by which the rolls were compiled for the 2005 elections, for the late publication of the rolls made scrutiny difficult and the correction of errors impossible. They were also unhappy with the large numbers of errors (such as duplication of names) on the rolls (Kubatana.com 2005). Others have openly alleged that the Registrar-General's Office deliberately manipulated the roll to the advantage of ZANU PF (Legalbrief Africa 2005).

References

CONSTITUTION OF ZIMBABWE 1980, incorporates all amendments until October 2007, [www] http://aceproject.org/ero-en/regions/africa/ZW/zimbabwe-constitution-of- zimbabwe-2008-1 [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

CONSTITUTION OF ZIMBABWE AMENDMENT (NO. 17) ACT 2005, [www] http://www.kubatana.net/docs/legisl/constitution_zim_amd17_050825.doc [Word document] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

CONSTITUTION OF ZIMBABWE AMENDMENT (NO 18) Act, 2007, [www] http://aceproject.org/regions-en/eisa/ZW/Constitution%20of%20Zimbabwe%20Amendment% 20No%2018%20Act%2C%202007.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

ELECTORAL ACT CHAPTER 2:13. Incorporates all amendments until 17 March 2008), [www] http://aceproject.org/ero-en/regions/africa/ZW/zimbawe-electoral-act-2008 [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

LEGALBRIEF AFRICA 2005, "Two certainties in the Zimbabwe elections", March 28, [www] http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=20050328155524121 [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

MOLOKELE, D 2005, "An overview of the Zimbabwean electoral institutions", ZimOnline, February, [www] http://www.zimonline.co.za/opinionread.asp?ID=9405 (page off-line 8 Apr 2010).

VERITAS 2010 "Constitutional Commissions", Bill Watch, 14/2010, 1 April.

ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL SUPPORT NETWORK 2005, "ZESN statement 2005 parliamentary elections", [www] http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/elec/050403zesn.asp?sector=ELEC [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL COMMISSION ACT CHAPTER 2:13, [www] [www] http://aceproject.org/regions-en/eisa/ZW/Zimbabwe%20Electoral% 20Commission%20Act%20Chapter%2021%202.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010). This does not include the amendments made by the Electoral Laws Amendment Act 2007, [www] http://kubatana.net/docs/legisl/electoral_laws_amendment_act_2007_080111.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).