CC image courtesty of Magnus Manske.
Tax income from Zimbabwean telecommunication operators and mobile banking will be used to fund the upcoming national elections, the minister of finance announced today.
The cabinet has approved tax increases for mobile banking and general network charges in order to raise funds for election polls.
Tendai Biti, Minister of Finance, revealed the decision as he spoke out on his encouragement of declaring voting dates,The Herald reported.
Biti said: “The elephant in the living room is self evident, it remains the issue of the election.
“I think the sooner there is clarity on the dates, there is clarity on the processes, there is clarity on the funding, I think we should see the return of greater business confidence.”
The government has raised US$25 million for mobile voter registration as the anticipation of voting dates grows.
“We spent the whole morning in Cabinet and Government is going to publish the consolidated plan for how this voter registration exercise is going to pan out,” Biti said.
The minister confirmed mobile voter registration will take place in 1,900 wards in Zimbabwe.
The previous electoral roll has been made available to schools for inspection.
Meanwhile, the public has been complaining about the government’s fundraising approach, suggestion internal capital generation as alternative.
Cde Rugare Gumbo, spokesperson for Zanu-PF, said: “We should mobilise our own resources to be the financier of our elections.”
This follows a South African Development Community (SADC) summit aiming to mobilise financial resources for polls due to constitutional requirements.
Opposition party Zanu-PF has denied MDC-T member Biti’s claims that there are no available internal funds.
According to Christopher Gwatidz, lecturer at Midlands State University, the country has the capacity to raise funds without relying on external help.
