Zimbabwe: 'There Will Be No Job Losses or Retrenchments' - ZEC Boss Says Amid Staff Transfer As Voter Registration Shifts to Registrar's Office

What the report says

Zimbabwe’s electoral authorities are moving ahead with a transfer of voter-registration responsibilities from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to the Registrar-General’s Office, a change linked to Constitutional Amendment Act No. 3 of 2023. According to the report, ZEC staff who worked on voter registration and voters’ roll management are expected to be absorbed into the Civil Registry Department rather than face layoffs.

ZEC chief elections officer Simbarashe Tongayi said the plan is intended to preserve the experience of 93 employees who previously staffed the commission’s voter-registration and delimitation unit. He said the Registrar-General’s Office has indicated it can accommodate the affected workers and that the transition is meant to protect institutional knowledge, especially in information technology and election administration. Tongayi also stressed that the shift should not be viewed as a retrenchment exercise.

The article says the move follows constitutional reforms that relocated voter-registration duties to the Registrar-General, who already oversees the civil registry and the National Population Register. Government official Zvinechimwe Churu, represented at a Bulawayo workshop by provincial permanent secretary Paul Nyoni, described the handover as a constitutional and institutional step to align electoral administration with the law.

Officials say the integration could reduce duplication, improve the accuracy of the voters’ roll and help keep records current. More broadly, the transfer reflects a reorganisation of responsibilities between state institutions, with both sides coordinating the handover at national and local levels while electoral preparations continue.