NEC extends voter registration in Dar

NEC Chairman, Judge (rtd) Damian Lubuva.

 

THE National Electoral Commission (NEC) has extended for four days Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) in Dar es Salaam, while 2,040 aliens were netted with voter identification cards (IDs) in various parts of the country during the exercise.

NEC Chairman, Judge (rtd) Damian Lubuva, told a news conference in Dar es Salaam that the decision to extend registration in Dar es Salaam was due to the big turnout of people.

The exercise was earlier scheduled to end today, but would now go on until Tuesday. “Sixty-two per cent of the targeted 2.9 million eligible voters have registered in Permanent Voters’ Register (PVR) in Dar es Salaam by Wednesday,” said NEC Chairman.

Justice Lubuva said 1,754,725 people had already registered in PVR in Dar es Salaam by Wednesday which brings the total number of people booked to 18,826,718 countrywide. Tanzania has about 48 million people and the target is to register 23 million people.

Tanzanian citizens aged 18 and above are eligible to vote. He pointed out that a total of 460,222 people had already registered in PVR in Ilala municipality by Wednesday while the target was to register 811,716 people, adding that a total of 722,404 people had registered in Kinondoni municipality while the target was to register 1,102,565 people.

He said after completion of the exercise the electoral body would start to display the PVR for verification, stressing that voters should turn out to crosscheck their personal details and make corrections where necessary.

“Those who have lost their voter Identification Cards for various reasons are going to be provided with the new ones,” he said. The chairman said verification would be jointly conducted with other state organs including the Immigration Department to detect non-citizens who have allegedly been registered in the PVR.

Meanwhile, the Immigration Department acting Commissioner, Mr Abbas Ilovya, said it was a crime for non-citizens to register in PVR.

He said 708 non-citizens were reportedly registered in Kagera, Mara (619), Tanga (348), Kigoma (254), Rukwa (13), Kilimanjaro (12), Ruvuma (9), Geita (6), Shinyanga (7), Mtwara (3), Coast Region (2), Mbeya (1), Morogoro (1), Dar es Salaam (65).