Election agents spill the beans

Election agents, particularly from MDC-T, are alleging that Zanu (PF) sympathisers were used to rig the July 31 election by voting at multiple polling stations using their voter registration slips.

The agents who talked to The Zimbabwean on condition of anonymity said the fraudulent voters were not on the voters’ roll but moved around with genuine and fake slips that they produced at several voting centres within the same wards.

According to the law, it is permissible for a person to vote if his or he name does not appear in the roll, but the voter must produce a voter registration slip to show that they would have registered.

“This is a loophole that Zanu (PF) capitalised on. We noted and complained to the presiding officers that there was an unusually high number of people who were voting using the slips. Our investigations revealed that these people moved around in trucks, voting at all the polling stations in the ward,” said one Chief Election Agent.

He claimed that the cheating voters would erase the voters’ ink with a special ink provided from China, to avoid being detected as multiple voters.

In Shurugwi North, said another MDC-T agent, about 10 trucks moved around polling stations with people not known in the area, but whom he said voted at Tongogara in Ward 12. The night before polling, the cars would come and go, playing Zanu (PF) jingles.

“It still remains a mystery who those people were. They voted, but my fellow agent stationed at Poshai polling station also told me that people answering to the same description had also voted there,” said the agent.

He admitted that it was difficult to immediately detect the shadowy movements of the multiple voters, but expressed concern that the number of people who had actually voted in the ward far outstripped that in the voters’ roll.

He questioned why Zanu (PF) supporters had not received their victory with joy.

“It seems as though nothing ever happened. Unlike in the past, no one was celebrating. It is almost as if these Zanu (PF) supporters cannot believe that they won. When Morgan Tsvangirai came to Tongogara, there were about 15,000 people who came to his rally, but we are surprised that our parliamentary candidate got less than 6,000 votes. Where did our supporters go?” he added.

The Zimbabwean has also established that the Zimbabwe Youth Council was used to issue voter slips to church goers in a fraudulent way.

A source who worships with New Life, a Pentecostal church, said ZYC representatives went to their church prior to the elections and asked worshippers who had not yet registered to supply them with their names and ID numbers.

“The following weekend, they returned with voter slips for scores of people who has supplied their details. The ZYC staffers did not even ask for church members’ IDS but, strangely they managed to bring the voter slips,” said the source.

He added: “Initially, we were told that we would go and vote in our areas of residence, but, just before the elections, everyone was asked to go and vote in Hatfield and understand that those who went managed to vote.”

A comment could not be obtained from ZYC, which has been linked to Zanu (PF), or the Registrar General of Voters.

Numerous losing candidates, particularly in rural constituencies, have questioned the numbers of people who voted Zanu (PF), suspecting that the figures were inflated.

Most of the political parties failed to obtain the voters’ roll that they would have used to verify the numbers and names of voters in their areas.

Post published in: News
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