ZANU PF says the US$187 000 fee demanded by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for the release of a copy of the voters’ roll is too high for the majority of political parties.

ZANU PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa told NewsDay that ZEC should create an environment that allows all political parties to participate in the democratic process. Said Mutsvangwa:

The threshold should be lower to ensure a democratic right for everyone. The price will not affect the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) or ZANU PF, but it affects all political parties. There should not be a barrier to entry.

This comes after a number of political parties expressed dismay over the price quoted to the Election Resource Centre (ERC) by ZEC last week for a printed copy of the voters’ roll.

ERC director Babra Bhebe said authorities should intervene to ensure that the voters’ roll is affordable. Said Bhebe:

The purpose of stakeholders accessing the voters’ roll is that they can do an analysis of the voters’ roll and if there are any anomalies within the voters’ roll, we then share them with the commission for the purposes of improving the quality of the voters’ roll.

Something must be done to reduce the cost of accessing the voters’ roll.

National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) leader Lovemore Madhuku described the price of a copy of the voters’ roll as ridiculous. He said:

This is ridiculous and completely unacceptable. ZEC does not seem to be interested in running a fair election.

They want to make sure they tighten every screw as they did with nomination fees. This should be changed as soon as possible.