HARARE, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Saturday refuted local private media reports that the voters' roll it availed to stakeholders is fake.

ZEC released the roll, which contains 5.6 million voters, on June 15.

On Friday, local media quoted opposition parties and civil society groups condemning the biometric voters' roll, describing it as "fake" and a mere "list of names" lacking voters' critical biometric data to make it a credible document.

In particular, the opposition wants a copy of the voters' roll that has photographs of the voters.

But in a statement Saturday, ZEC said the voters' roll it has released contains sufficient information as required by the law.

"The Commission is saddened by such allegations which in its opinion are meant to cause alarm and despondency among the generality of the Zimbabwean populace," ZEC said.

It added that ZEC was issuing a roll which can be analyzed and searched by age, name, national registration number and residential address in conformity with the law.

Thus allegations that the voters' roll is fake because it does not contain voters' photographs are regrettable, ZEC said.

The elections management body clarified that the voters' roll with photographs being referred to by the opposition in the law relates to each polling area and not to a polling station voters' roll which it will print and distribute to each polling station for the purposes of polling on July 30.

ZEC said the printed roll for the July 30 polls will not be in its consolidated form as that issued to the stakeholders.

It also clarified that the roll is printed in PDF format and as such it is not analyzable and searchable as envisaged by the law.

However, ZEC said those who wish to get a copy of the PDF voters' roll containing photographs are free to approach it with their own external computer hard drives where such roll will be downloaded on.