Youth organisation concerned with polls

In a statement, YAT said: “Youth Agenda Trust would like to express dismay and disappointment at the manner in which the electoral process has been conducted so far, which leaves us with no option but to conclude that this process is rigged and thus NULL and VOID.”

It particularly complained over the manner in which the voters’ roll was handled, saying it was “flawed” since many people were turned away and some had their names incorrectly written.

It accused the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of playing a part in rigging. YAT would like to particularly pick out the following issues as the basis for the position that we have taken:

“We therefore feel that the failure by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to furnish political parties and civil society with a copy of the voters’ roll was a deliberate attempt to mask the well orchestrated political fraud,” read the statement.

The organisation questioned why large numbers of people from peri-urban, farming and mining communities were assisted to vote yet Zimbabwe has a high literacy rate, saying doing so was a form of violence against the voters.

“What makes this even worse is that Zimbabwe has 95 percent literacy rate but we have over 60 percent of the voting population claiming to be illiterate,” said YAT, which also complained that people were bussed into urban areas from rural communities so as to vote.

The organisation accused Zanu (PF) officials of “illegally issuing out registration slips even the day before the election and on the election day”.

“We would like to say that this alone is evidence that this year’s elections have been rigged. We are just wondering that besides those who were caught doing the illegal operation, how many more out there managed to do it and did not get caught?” said YAT.

“As Youth Agenda Trust, we condemn this electoral process in its entirety and call upon regional and international bodies monitoring the elections to discredit this comic process. We urge ZEC to immediately abandon this chaotic process and pave way for a more credible and transparent process,” concluded the trust.