By Own Correspondent| Traditional Zanu Pf strongholds registered an unusually higher concentration of registered voters, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has said.

According to a report by the ZESN, Zanu PF’s traditional strongholds, namely Midlands, Mashonaland West, East and Manicaland provinces recorded higher numbers of registered voters when compared to opposition MDC-T strongholds.

Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South which are considered opposition strongholds, recorded the least.

A detailed analysis of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) data by the electoral watchdog, revealed that Epworth and Harare South had an unusually high voter registration turnout.

“Of concern to ZESN are the higher numbers of registered voters in Goromonzi South with 65 539, Epworth (63 961), Dangamvura-Chikanga (58 000) and Harare South (60 270) constituencies.

“This points out to the need for more polling stations in the respective constituencies and the need for a delimitation exercise post 2018 elections,” said ZESN in a statement.

Epworth, Goromonzi South, Harare South and Chikanga-Dangamvura are currently held by Zanu PF legislators and populated by mostly resettled farmers and illegal settlers.

The fight for electoral victory will also be in Zanu PF strongholds – Midlands (717 510), Manicaland (66 943), Mashonaland West (611 751) Mashonaland East (585 198) and Masvingo (583 599), accounting for over 60% of registered voters, while Bulawayo has only 211 276 registered voters.

“ZEC provisional BVR statistics show that a substantial proportion of adult Zimbabweans 2 039 056 did not register in the BVR blitz.

Harare has a projected adult population of 1,3 million [1 345 818], but had fewer than 800 000, who have registered to vote,” ZESN said.

The 2018 general elections will be dominated by young people, who make up over 70% of the registered voters.-Newsday.