Garikai Mafirakureva

MASVINGO-The Voter Inspection that began on May 27, 2023, and is expected to end on June 1 has exposed the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) after several registered voters could not find their names in the voters’ roll.
This is rampant even in smaller towns and districts where many people can not find names. ZEC is also accused of creating identical polling station codes.
Several attempts to seek a comment from ZEC hit a brick wall as their numbers were unreachable.
However, notable figures include sitting MPs that allegedly could not find their names. The Citizen Coalition for Change (CCC) vice president, Professor Welshman Ncube, CCC Treasurer-General, David Coltart and CCC MP for Bulawayo Nicola Watson failed to find their names. The discrepancies have sent shockwaves to the opposition, particularly CCC.
In a letter written to ZEC by Ian Makone on behalf of CCC dated May 29, 2023, seen by The Mirror, CCC expressed shock at the anomalies.
“Part of the letter reads: The main issue arising from the preliminary reports received include the following: missing names of prospective voters some of which had voted in 2018 and some as recent as March 2022 by-election, for example, ward 25 in Gokwe-Nembudziya constituency-all surnames start A-Mu are missing from the Ward Voters.
“Registered voters that have been appearing on BVR online inspection platforms are suddenly missing their names from the current online platforms and the voters’ roll under inspection.
“The presence of FAZ organisation at voter inspection centres must be explained because in some instances FAZ ‘officials’ are interfering with, and even controlling the process. We cannot have an illegal body overriding the operations of a constitutional body.”
According to a local data analysis and electoral advocacy group, Team Pachedu in Masvingo, Bikita RDC Bikita East Ward 20 Gomba School Site Tent has an identical code to Bikita RDC Bikita East Ward 21 Chireya Village Tent 0400BKT2003. Team Pachedu explained that the polling station code is a database primary key that should never have duplicate codes.
“We have found 311 polling stations whose wards changed recently and now contradict both the final delimitation report and the polling station codes. The most affected are in Mberengwa (192). Mutasa (106) and Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe (7). ZEC explain these gross anomalies!” Team Pachedu said on Twitter.
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