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Zanzibar now allows voter register audit
2005-09-20 08:29:07
By Guardian Reporter and Reuters
Authorities in Zanzibar yesterday agreed to allow independent verification of the voter roll in a bid to resolve a standoff with the opposition before next month’s elections.
South African firm Waymark Infotech would now be allowed to inspect the roll, the Zanzibar Electoral Commission (ZEC) said.
Confidence in a clean register in the semi-autonomous islands is seen as crucial to avoiding the fraud allegations and violence that has marred previous polls.
Zanzibar infuriated the CUF last month by suspending a contract between ZEC and Waymark to check the roll. It said the firm failed to follow government tendering rules and was sending information abroad.
Waymark said it did not have facial and fingerprint verification software on the islands and needed to send some samples to South Africa and the United States, ZEC said.
’’But Waymark will soon bring a facial recognition module that will enable it to do the job here,’’ ZEC Information Officer Idrissa Jecha said.
’’We will also be using a fingerprint recognition module that has been used by NEC (the National Electoral Commission).’’
CUF accuses CCM of interfering with the register by inflating it with its own supporters while barring opponents from registering to vote.
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