By Paul Nyathi|Contrary to continous social media information that the The Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise for people who intend to vote in this year’s harmonised elections will end two days before elections, the new Electoral Act closes the exercise two days after proclamation of election dates by President Mnangagwa.

Registration for aspiring voters for future elections will however continue.

In an interview with state media over the weekend, ZEC chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba confirmed that umder the new law the date will be earlier than in previous elections.

According to Chigumba the cut-off date will allow the elections management body to prepare the final voters’ roll in time.

“There has been an amendment to the law; two days after announcement of election dates is the deadline to register. That gives us sufficient time to prepare the final voters’ roll.

“The next port of call is the gazetting of the provisional voters roll by the President. Fourteen days after proclamation of election dates, the nomination court will sit and we will be able to give the final voters’ roll to political parties,” she said.

Previously, ZEC has raised concerns that the law gave them little time to prepare the final voters’ roll.

Inspection of the provisional voters’ roll closed on Tuesday.

Justice Chigumba said the public turnout has been tremendous.

“Over 700 000 people turned out physically to inspect their names on the voters’ roll and we are very happy with the turnout. The process is going on smoothly,” she said.

Latest statistics from ZEC indicate that around 5 310 734 people have registered to date. Some aspiring voters are also taking advantage of the inspection exercise to register.