By Own Correspondent| The statement issued by the Commander ZRP 2018 Harmonised Elections Committee, Senior Assistant Commissioner Erasmus Makodza confirmed that members of the uniformed forces voted in Bulawayo yesterday (Thursday).

According to the statement, the country’s Constitution provides for members of the police to vote through postal voting.

However, in an earlier report in one of the local dailies, ZEC Commissioner who is the Acting Chief Elections Officer, Utoile Silaigwana dismissed as “hogwash and stupid propaganda” reports that voting took place in Bulawayo.

Said Commissioner Silaigwana:

“This is hogwash and very stupid propaganda because in the first place they have photos of a police officer standing near a ballot box yet with postal voting a voter doesn’t use a ballot box.

Postal voting is for individuals who apply for it and he or she is given a ballot paper in an envelope and returns it sealed. This is cheap propaganda without substance at all.

This is coming from a person who doesn’t even understand the process. The pictures they put have nothing to do with postal vote and these people just want cause despondency in the country.”

However, the ZRP statement did not deny that voting took place rather justifying that postal voting was provided for in the country’s supreme law, the Constitution.

Below is the full press statement issued by Senior Assistant Commissioner Makodza:

The Zimbabwe Republic Police wishes to set the record straight and allay fears of vote rigging by police officers as claimed in some social media messages which are circulating.

The correct position is that some police officers will be performing security duties in other provinces which are not their normal work stations.

Thus in terms of Section 72 of the Electoral Act, the concerned police officers will exercise their right to vote through the postal ballot system which is being administered by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

Some provinces like Bulawayo have excess manpower which is due for deployment in Matabeleland North province thus necessitating the postal vote for the affected members.

Infact the total number of police officers who applied for the postal ballot does not go beyond 4000. The rest of police officers will actually cast their ballots on 30th July 2018 as earlier revealed by the ZRP command and ZEC in numerous meetings and workshop briefings.

The whole process is conducted according to Section 75 of the Electoral Act, Chapter 2:13.