A Zimbabwean MP shocked parliament when he produced evidence that the
voter’s roll used in last year’s elections had names of hundreds of dead
people who had been registered to vote.

MP Tongai Matutu said the anomaly showed “the extent to which the voters’
roll should represent the graveyard”.

“Of those 503 (dead voters), the surprising thing is that they all have a
similar date of birth which is 1 January 1901,” said Matutu.

Matutu is a member of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for
Democratic Change.

“I have the list of those people who are 107-years-old still appearing on
the voters roll,” said Matutu.

He said he had copies of the voter’s roll used in the disputed elections,
which resulted in the formation of the unity government.

“We have 144,202 [people] over the age of 90 on the voters’ roll,” said the
fiery MP, adding that the average life expectancy of Zimbabweans was about
44 years.

“There were 115 voters who were below the age of 18 (legal voting age) with
the youngest being one-year-old at the time of 2008 elections,” said Matutu.
”So what it simply means is we are going to have more ghosts than
registered voters.”

Zimbabwe is expected to hold fresh elections next year.