Special voting chaos continues into second day

The second day of special voting was marred by the same problems that characterised the opening day.

On Sunday voting had been characterised by logistical bottlenecks and chaos. Electoral authorities failed to deliver special ballot papers in time to several centres countrywide.

In Masvingo province there was no voting at all on the first day due to these constraints.

Special voting is conducted at least 16 days before the national poll to accommodate police officers, soldiers and other officials who will be on duty on July 31.

At most of the polling stations visited by The Zimbabwean on Monday the late delivery of ballot papers was still a huge problem.

Restless police officers were pushing and shoving at Town House while at Mabvuku Hall they threatened this reporter for attempting to take a photograph of the melee.

It was only at Mai Musodzi Hall in Mbare that there was a visible improvement as more people were able to cast their votes. Polling officers manning the station told The Zimbabwean that they had received most of the ballot papers allocated to them.

At Seke Teachers’ College in Chitungwiza there was also a slight improvement but there were still many people waiting for their ballot papers.

The Presiding Officer at Seke, Ephraim Mutubuki admitted to The Zimbabwean that he did not know if all people would vote before the closing of the poll.

“We expect to finish with everyone today since this is the last day but we do not have control over what happens at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

“There are still some cases of people waiting outside who do not have envelopes,” Mutubuki said.

He gave the example of a case he was handling in which a voter had arrived with an authorisation letter from ZEC which did not have an official stamp.

“We are consulting with the officials from ZEC to see how we can assist the voter,” he said.

Some police officers who were voting at Town House told The Zimbabwean that they had been threatened to vote for Zanu (PF) by their superiors.

“For three consecutive nights some of us who do not live in the camp had to go home well into the night while attending rallies. We were told that any police officers who would not attend would be killed,” one officer said.

The officer said the superiors were particularly hard with the younger officers.

“I think this is an attempt to frustrate us from voting because they do not think the younger officers can be whipped into line the older longer serving guys,” the officer said.

“We will keep waiting in the queue patiently. Of course, we have been bombarded from left, right and centre,” another officer said, shrugging his shoulders.

At Town House journalists were being prohibited from entering the voting with a photojournalist being manhandled by a policeman at the instigation of the presiding officer.

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