At Muroyi Polling Station, 36 voters requested assistance to vote whilst 45 were assisted in Zaka Central, Ward 9 in Masvingo, 37 at Gutu, and 45 at Rusununguko Primary School in Mufakose. Such a trend was witnessed even in March this year during the Referendum where some political parties coached their supporters and other eligible voters to claim that they could not cast their votes without assistance. Elections experts have deemed this issue as an attempt to subvert the vote by influencing a certain particular voting pattern and outcome.
In this light, the ERC Director, Tawanda Chimhini said it was unfortunate that the international observers did not deter such irregularities which began during the pre-election period. “Election Day observation alone is inadequate, had the international observers been closely monitoring the entire electoral process, such coaching of would be voters would have been detected and dealt with way before the Election Day. These are efforts by certain political parties to influence voters in their favour. We can only hope that international observers get the context and possible consequences of such behaviour,” he said.
Election observers are there to observe, not to conduct elections.