MPS REVEAL THREATS, DIRTY PLOT TO REMOVE SOME FROM VOTERS ROLL

LOBAMBA – Members of Parliament (MPs) have highlighted the alleged dirty plot by certain individuals to spitefully remove some persons from the voters roll, while also threatening them.

While the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Pholile Shakantu, has indicated that the voters roll is now 95 per cent clean, the legislators questioned the minister on who held the authority to remove an individual from the voters roll, as some people were abusing it to spite those who they did not like. Shakantu delivered a follow-up ministerial statement in respect of the ongoing voter registration validation exercise by the Elections Boundaries Commission (EBC), where she stated that the validation process was now available both manually across the different tinkhundla centres and chiefdoms, as well as electronically, which includes kits deployed at strategic places around the country and the mobile version (*411#), which is accessible on both mobile networks.

Welcoming

As much as the legislators were welcoming to the progress made by the ministry and the commission on the voter validation exercise, they expressed discontent on the voters roll being used as a tool to spite others. The matter was first raised by Gilgal MP Sandla Fakudze, who said it had reached his attention that there was a plot to remove some individuals from the voters roll purely out of spite, not that they did not qualify to be at the chiefdom they had registered to vote under. The MP shared that there were rumours making the rounds that there were people who went to the tinkhundla centres, some of which they did not belong to, and pointed to an individual’s name stating that they were not from the inkhundla, simply out of malice or to jeopardise their chances of making it in the elections if they had ambitions of contesting.

Ndzingeni MP Lutfo Dlamini also put it to the minister to shed light on who had the authority to remove a person on the voters roll without that person’s knowledge. He highlighted that there was a purported list of persons who had been earmarked as the persons to be removed from the voters roll and the perpetrators were all over carrying out their dirty mandate.
Dlamini also highlighted that these individuals were also issuing threats to people, advising them not to vote for certain individuals or they would face dire consequences. “Who are these individuals who have so much interest in the elections when no one has yet been nominated? We want to know where we can report them so that the law can take its course and these individuals be dealt with accordingly,” he submitted.

Mhlangatane MP Madala Mhlanga also decried the issue of the voters roll being taken advantage of to spite others. He also wished to find out who had the authority to weed someone else from the voters roll as the perpetrators were doing so in constituencies they were not even from.  Minister Shakantu, in her response to the concerns of the legislators, pointed to Section 18 (1) of the Voters Registration Act, 2013, which states that a registered voter may at any time object to the inclusion or retention of any person’s name in the register of voters; the restoration or addition of any person’s name to the register of voters; the removal of a person’s name from the register of voters; or the correctness of any person’s registration details in the voters register.

She explained that there was a process which was followed in the objection exercise, which included lodging it with the commission in the approved form No.6 and the commission would make a decision on an objection not later than 14 days after the objection was made. Subsection (5) of this Section stipulates that a person who is not satisfied with a decision of the Commission under this section may, with leave of the High Court, appeal to the High Court within 14 days of the decision.

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