The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has blamed its staffer for leaking a copy of the voters roll to a pro-opposition social media group Pachedu which has been unearthing a plethora of irregularities that have raised doubts on the fairness of the upcoming by-elections and 2023 plebiscite.
According to Team Pachedu, the 2022 copy of the voters roll has thousands of voters who were transferred to constituencies holding by-elections while some house addresses have been exposed for having over 30 registrants among other irregularities.
But ZEC acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jane Chigiji denied giving the voters roll to Team Pachedu while also distancing the electoral mother body from a USSD code that citizens have been using to access the voters roll.
“It has become a habit of some stakeholders to make spurious but damaging alegations against the Commission. They raise their allegations in the media without first seeking clarification from the commission as a deliberate strategy.”
“Time and again some stakeholders have abused the electorate by churning misinformation to them that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission rigs elections in this country. Some citizens have gullibly accepted these allegations without challenging those who make them,” ZEC scathed.
The commission further revealed that that some politicians confessed that they cannot tell their constituents the truth as they might lose support, hence the continued attacks on ZEC’s credibility.
Chigiji also clarified on cases where people from the same household are allocated different polling stations saying it could be a result of the voting centre exceeding the 1000 voters threshold forcing them to put the remaining voters on the next centre.
She also committed to investigate some of the issues raised while encouraging citizens with queries to approach them for clarification.
There has been a social media uproar over the unequal treatment given to political parties by the Zimbabwe Republic Police especially the fact that the ruling ZANU PF was allowed to bus its supporters to the rally in Epworth on 12 March, yet the Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) has been denied to do so for its rally in Highfied on Sunday.
Responding to the issue, Chigiji said: “There are laws in this country which we should follow. So you also want ZEC to speak on behalf of the police.”
She further noted that they had not received any complaint over the unequal treatment of political parties by the police adding that they cannot just spring into action without being alerted of the issue.
Zimbabwe is set to hold council and parliamentary by-elections on 26 March 2022.
The by-elections have been largely necessitated by the recalling of councillors and MPs belonging to the then Nelson Chamisa-led MDC Alliance by Thokozani Khupe and later Douglas Mwonzora since 2020.
