NEC to conduct special registration for students

Students who have attained the voting age will fill special forms during the ongoing final update of the voter’s register, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) has said. According to Charles Munyaneza, the NEC Executive Secretary, this has been done to help in tracking students so that their names can be registered at their respective polling stations. Elections will be held during school holidays. “Students, especially those in boarding schools, will fill forms indicating their respective home areas where they will be during holidays. We will base on this information to register their names at their respective polling centres,” Munyaneza said on phone yesterday. The final phase of updating the voter’s register started on Monday will end on June 30, ahead of the presidential polls slated for August 9. However, according to Munyaneza, students’ registration has met an major challenge where some students do not know the exact names of their home areas. “It is a challenge because the exercise cannot be successful without having the correct data,” he said.He advised parents to always give children full details of their places of residence to avoid the inconveniences. Munyaneza says that University students will have to register and vote in their respective schools since, according to the electoral calendar, polls will be conducted while they are at school. NEC expects to register about 300,000 more voters during the final registration in addition to the over 5.2 million already registered. Ends