HARARE –Zimbabwe has four times more centenarians than Britain despite the European nation enjoying a far longer life expectancy than its former colony, according to a new report on the African nation’s scandalously shambolic voters’ roll.

The report by the South Africa-based Institute of Security Studies (ISS) also said that the voters’ roll in some cases lists children as young as two years as eligible voters, adding that the register was so flawed it cannot be corrected but must be simply thrown away and a fresh one prepared.

The report, titled "Preventing Electoral Fraud in Zimbabwe" that is based on the latest version of the voters’ roll indicates that Zimbabwe has 41,119 centenarians registered to vote – a curiously high figure for a country where according to the World Health Organisation average life expectancy is 34 for women and 37 for men.

“The UK, with a total population of over 60 million and an average life expectancy of more than 30 years longer than Zimbabwe’s, has only 10 000 centenarians,” said the that has since been handed to the Zimbabwean authorities.

It said there are 19, 626 women and 21, 056 men aged 100 years or more registered to vote in Zimbabwe, while another 437centenarian voters are of “uncertain gender”.

In another curious statistic, 16, 828 of Zimbabwe’s centenarians were all born on the same date on January 1, 1901.

The report shows that in President Robert Mugabe’s rural home district of Zvimba alone, there were 1,101 voters who have each reached 110 years age.

“Zimbabwe’s voter’s roll is beyond redemption and cannot even be used as one of the building blocks in the construction of a new and authoritative voters’ roll. It simply has to be scrapped completely,” the ISS said.

This is not the first time that Zimbabwe’s controversial voters’ roll has been shown to be chaotic and inaccurate.

A study by the local Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (ZESN) earlier this year showed that the voters’ roll was so outdated and thoroughly distorted that it is no more than a mere register of the names of people who were born or once lived in the country from the 1900s to date – whether they are still alive, dead or have long since left the country. 

The ZESN that also called for a new voters’ roll to be prepared before any new elections are held said in a report that 27 percent of names appearing on the register were of dead people, while the NGO identified at least 2 000 people on the roll who were more than 100 years old.

Critics have long accused Mugabe and his ZANU (PF) party – whose previous government prepared the present voters’ roll – of deliberating maintaining a chaotic register and allegedly manipulating it to enhance their chances of wining elections.

ZimOnline was unable last night to get comment on the matter from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

But the commission that was appointed by Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to run elections has previously said it does not have resources to fund compilation of a fresh register.

Zimbabwe’s elections have in the past been blighted by violence and charges of vote rigging, which saw the European Union and United States slapping sanctions on Mugabe and senior members of ZANU (PF).

The last election in 2008 ended in stalemate after Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe for the first time but election officials withheld results for five weeks, only to call for a run-off vote, which was marred by violence and boycotted by Tsvangirai citing deaths among his supporters at the hands of ZANU (PF)

By Zimonline