Information gleaned from the ZEC website and other sources shows that the commission has up to date not published results of the local authorities’ elections at polling station level. The commission only published results for the presidential and national assembly ballots, yet the three are cast simultaneously.
Rita Makarau, the ZEC chairperson, was not available to explain the anomalies and mix-ups shown in the commission’s 2013 election results records. There are glaring differences between presidential, local authority and national assembly ballot numbers, with the largest variations seen in the comparison of the first two.
In more than 400 wards, there were more ballots cast in the local authority poll than the presidential one. In Bikita Rural District Council’s Ward 32, for instance, the variation is 171.5 percent, Shurugwi Town Council Ward 12 (166.7 percent), Bikita Rural District Council (RDC)’s Ward 18 (156.1 percent) and Gweru City Council’s Ward 10 (139.9 percent).
Less than half
In 104 wards, the total votes cast (TVCs) in the local authority election were less than those of the total presidential poll. The largest variations were in Zaka RDC’s Ward 34 (29.3 percent), Hurungwe RDC’s Ward 6 (23.3), Hurungwe RDC’s Ward 21 (22.7), Makoni RDC’s Ward 18 (18.1) and Harare City council’s Ward 7 (17.5).
The anomalies could be a sign of ZEC staff’s incompetence in matching up figures, said an independent researcher who refused to be named.
“It is clear that there is a systematic failure by ZEC to ensure the ballots balanced, to verify their own data and to implement basic quality control mechanisms. Whether this is the result of just institutional incompetence or a more sinister agenda is open to speculation,” said the researcher.
Glaringly, according to the 2012 national census, Hwange Town Council’s ward 9 has a total population of only 488 people, yet 3,232 voted in the same area in 2013 according to ZEC official statistics. In the Runde RDC, there were 816 percent more voters than the total census population.
Missing results
The ZEC website records duplicates and sometimes even repeats three times, results for 25 national assembly polls and results for six of the 210 constituencies are missing altogether.
The missing results are for Buhera South, Bulilima West, Chiredzi North, Masvingo West, Mwenezi West and Zvimba North. The ZEC results show incorrect outcomes for at least 34 polling stations that could be due to simple calculation errors or data omissions.
It has also emerged that a new town council, Mvurwi in Mashonaland Central province’s Mazowe North district, was created through Statutory Instrument (SI) 32 of 2010, with voters being registered yet no polling took place in 2013 in the council’s six wards.
Misallocated
ZEC misallocated several wards in Chiredzi, shifting town council polling stations to rural district areas and did not include presidential results for at least five wards in the district.
The site also includes interesting details regarding voting patterns at some polling stations in 2013. At Harare City Council’s Ward 17 in Mount Pleasant’s Tent A, 936 votes were cast in the national assembly poll but only 201 were recorded for the presidential election.
At the same tent, 490 people voted for the Zanu (PF) candidate yet only 92 voted for Mugabe, signalling electoral sabotage against the party president.
It has also emerged that voters under the Chirundu Local Board are registered under the rural council. Ignatius Chombo, the local government minister, continues to appoint the board which must be elected as is the case in other similar set ups like Epworth outside Harare.
Post published in: News