Minister Morgan Tsvangirai accompanies his twins Vincent and Millicent as they register to vote in Harare.
Stringent requirements and too few voter registration centres have left a large number of potential first-time voters unregistered after the three-week process that ends on Sunday.
The latest figures from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which is in charge of the process, show that 400 000 new voters had registered since the start of the exercise last month.
The ZEC has been widely criticised for concentrating the registration sites in rural areas, which are seen as traditional Zanu-PF strongholds. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has complained that the limited voter registration sites in urban areas was meant to deny its supporters a chance to register. In the last elections, major urban areas – Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru – were bastions of support for the MDC.
But the ZEC defended itself, saying that those in rural areas were unlikely to travel to cities to register. Bulawayo province, an MDC power base, is being serviced by only 15 mobile registration centres. The country's second largest city has a population of nearly 1.5-million.
Rashweat Mukundu, director of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, said Zanu-PF was obstructing the official voter registration process, and at the same time urging its supporters in the rural areas to turn out for the registration exercise, which suggests a parallel voter registration process is being run in rural strongholds and among religious sects.
"Zanu-PF officials have reportedly been busing people from all over the country for the past six months for voter registration and this strategy, which is akin to election rigging, is linked to the denial of voter registration [to] citizens seen as belonging to other political parties," said Mukundu.
"It is for this reason that Zanu-PF expressed satisfaction with the mobile voter registration process when, for all intents and purposes, there is chaos in the exercise. It is up to the two formations of the MDC to take up this matter in Cabinet and other forums."
A difficult exercise
Morgan Tsvangirai, who accompanied his 18-year-old twins Vincent and Millicent to register as first-time voters on Tuesday, admitted the exercise was difficult.
"The system was not flowing as we would expect. It is something we are fighting for as a party – to make sure the process is smooth. These are tactics to frustrate, especially if first-time and born-free voters do not register. We will not be able to deliver a new Zimbabwe that way," he said.
To register, prospective voters must produce an identity document and proof of residence in the form of a utility bill. Media reports have indicated that scores of people intending to register have been turned away over the past three weeks because their identity documents reflect that they are "aliens" or because they did not have a valid proof of residence.
ZEC chair Rita Makarau appeared to concede to the difficulties, and hinted that the exercise could be extended by 30 days. "The queues are long and [people are] not being served effectively. This means we need to reorganise and restrategise. The entire system is not coping. Voter education is not adequate. The commissioners will meet on Friday to come up with one position. We need to agree as the commissioners."
President Robert Mugabe has recently insisted that elections will take place in June. Financial constraints have also posed a challenge, with the treasury indicating it would only release $4-million out of the $8-million budget requested by the ZEC for the exercise.
Makarau indicated that so far only $500 000 had been received. The process was also marred by the arrest of Tawanda Chimhini, the director of Election Resource Centre, a nongovernmental organisation that carries out election monitoring and voter education. Three staff from the organisation were charged for illegally conducting voter education.