By Staff Reporter

GOVERNMENT has extended working hours at the Civil Registry Department as well as deploying mobile registration officers to facilitate issuance of identity documents.

All static registry offices including the mobile teams will operate from 0700hrs to 1900 hours between Monday to Friday and from 0700hrs to 1700hrs on weekends.

The move by the government is a complementary effort to Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s mobile biometric voter registration blitz which commenced on March 12 and will run till March 21.

In a statement, the Civil Registry Department said the initiative is targeted at 18 year-olds and above who are intending to register as voters.

“Department is conducting a mobile registration exercise from 12 to 21 March 2023 in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Mobile Biometric Voter Registration blitz.

“Mobile teams have been deployed across the country to augment the existing static registry offices. This programme is meant to provide citizens with an opportunity to obtain national identity documents which will enable them to register as voters in the upcoming 2023 Harmonised General Elections.

“The exercise is targeting those who attained 18 years of age intending to register as voters, Those who lost their identity documents and are eligible to register as voters in the 2023 Harmonised General Elections and those who are 18 years and above who require both birth certificates and national identity documents,” read the  Civil Registry Department statement.

There have been calls by election watchdogs for the government to assist in issuing identification documents particularly to first time voters and those in remote areas.