Mr. Maenzanise, the Returning Officer at the said counting centre informed observers that they were not at liberty to either disclose or display the results as they were channelling directly to the national command centre. The mentioned Returning Officer reportedly hinted to the observers that it is his exclusive discretion to make public or not, results from the collation centre concerned. Such utterances are clearly contrary to the provisions of electoral legislation and regulations.
It is further reported that at some polling stations in Nyami Nyami, Seke and Mt Pleasant, results are not being displayed at polling stations; rather they are being channelled directly to their respective collation centres.
The ERC strongly condemns such conduct which negates the provisions of the Referendums Regulations (Statutory Instrument 26 of 2013) requiring every Returning Officer to “upon completion of the constituency collation return, affix a copy of the constituency collation return outside the constituency collation centre.” Consistently, the country`s electoral laws allow for the following people to be present in a collation centre during the collation of results;
1. -The Returning Officer and Referendum Officer
2. -Accredited observers and journalists
3. – Police
The ERC therefore calls upon election administrators to exercise consistency in the observance of electoral regulations, which inevitably would limit suspicions of manipulation of the electoral outcomes.
Meanwhile, the ERC is making efforts to inform the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission about such developments.
Post published in: News