By Richard Muponde
MATABELELAND South province could lose three constituencies in the impeding delimitation exercise by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), including the popular constituency of Gwanda South which has not been won by an opposition member since 2008.
The constituency is currently held by Zanu PF politburo member, Abednego Ncube and is popularly known as the Holy Ground.
But Zec has said that it was likely to be “good bye” to the Holy Ground if the constituency did not meet the minimum threshold of 21 644 registered voters to be a stand-alone parliamentary seat.
Currently, it has 15 230 registered voters.
Constituencies of Bulilima West, represented by former ZBC DJ Dingimuzi Phuthi and Insiza South represented by Filabusi miner, Spares Sithole, also Zanu PF strongholds, could be collapsed.
“We are going to collapse all these constituencies which don’t meet the minimum threshold on 21 644. We seek to reach equilibrium in the constituencies. It’s not fair that some constituencies have a very big number of registered voters and others don’t meet the minimum threshold, but get the same resources. We have to find some sort of balance,” Zec commissioner Joyce Laetitia Kazembe told Southern Eye Weekender in an interview at the electoral body’s Zimbabwe
International Trade Fair (ZITF) stand on Thursday.
The Zec commissioner said the electoral body was registering people and also conducting awareness campaign, with the hope that more people would register in these affected constituencies.
“As you may know, voter registration is an ongoing process. We are busy registering people here at ZITF. We are also going to go to the people physically to continue with the process before the 2023 election because if some the people are travelling long distances to go and register. We want to make their task easier so that they don’t get into buses to come and register,” she said.
