Tinashe Sambiri|The MDC Alliance department of elections ( Youth Assembly) has released a detailed document pointing out how Zanu PF rigs elections.

According to the document compiled by MDC Alliance Masvingo Province Youth Assembly director of elections, Struggle Desire Nyahunda, the Zanu PF internal elections were fraught with irregularities and massive rigging.

The voters roll was shambolic and fake ballot papers were used in the process.

In some places voters were intimidated while impersonation was used to rig the polls.

Below is Nyahunda’s detailed report on Zanu PF chaotic polls…

MASVINGO YOUTH ASSEMBLY STATEMENT ON THE RECENT ZANU PF PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS IN Masvingo PROVINCE

Provincial Elections Department

04-01-2022

It is with great interest that the Assembly Of the Youth in Masvingo Province hereby issues this statement in the wake of the recently held Zanu PF Provincial elections which was held on the 28th of December 2022 accross all the districts.

As a Democratic alternative in the country, every activity that happens across is of greater importance especially to the Elections department where our eyes were monitoring the system that was used and all events prior, during and on the aftermath.

We have noted several irregularities across the districts with reports obtained from our replicate offices and portifolios to come up with a comprehensive position on the STATE OF ELECTIONS in this country ahead of 2023 Plebiscite. The following issues were noted and we shall set the record straight :

1. Zanu PF used state security apparatus which includes various security departments in the country to convene its internal elections. The abuse of the Zimbabwe Republic Police in the internal processes of a political party is not only a cause of concern but a grave conflation of the Partisan politics and security departments of the country. The same police is expected to preside over cases of violence and a raft of anomalies that happens during National Elections. They will be manning polling stations as Security department and their credibility will be doubted.
2. Government vehicles were used to conduct party business which is a sorry situation especially considering that our country is reeling in financial doldrums and constraints. The same government is failing to pay descent salaries to civil servants and service delivery is not a concern to them but Internal elections matters most to them.
3. The election was a microcosm of macrocosm, it was a replica of well perfected rigging machinery of what is to come. The wanton electoral malpractices observed in the run up to the elections must worry the opposition political parties and the region at large. The common malpractices shall be discussed to validate the claim herein:

(a). DEPLOYMENT OF POLLING OFFICERS

There was a delay in the deployment of polling officials in areas which were a threat to those who were the favorites of Provincial Commissioners Monica Mutsvangwa. This is a common practice in the general elections where we witness voting which is allowed to proceed in the dead of the night due to dubious claims. This must be watched very closely

(b). COUNTERFEIT BALLOT PAPERS

The favorites to win the elections had counterfeit ballot papers to make sure they tamper around with the outcome of the polls especially in districts where results had to be counted at command centres against counting of votes at the polling stations. During the process of traveling, the ballot boxes are exchanged and its a common practice in the conduction of Zimbabwe elections.

(c). SHAMBOLIC VOTERS ROLL

As the party we have been demanding the release of voters roll in every election but ZEC gives its own excuses. This may result in voters failing to access their names on the polling day because voters roll is released on the day of the election. What happened in Gutu was a perfection of a system that is to come in 2022. There was a polling station which had only 2 verified voters and the voters roll was empty but it was shocking to see 120 people voting at such a polling station. This is because of compromised polling officials as is the case with ZEC.

(d). SWAPPING OF VOTERS ROLL

On the polling day, the voters rolls are swapped and many voters may fail to access their names because of a deliberate ploy by the regime. This happened in several wards where a voters roll of one ward had to be swapped with the voters roll of another ward. The polling officers definitely would go back with the voters roll and the ward would fail to vote. This happened and is the case in Zimbabwe where voters would know that their name is appearing in another ward resulting in the impatient voters to go back home. The party must be very worried about this issue.

(e). GHOST POLLING STATIONS

ZANU PF thrives on creation of ghost polling stations to make sure they cover the gap that they would want to win with the elections. This is usually done in their strongholds where they are not monitored closely or where the Agents of opposition are harassed. The Agents of the losing faction were barred from polling stations especially Gutu West and Gutu Central. This is the reason why there are complaints of the way voting was done where polling officials had to make sure that there was 100% turn up of the voters at every polling station. The verification being done is revealing that no voting was done but polling officials just wrote the results and went back to command Centre because there were no agents. The creation of Ward A and B was an attempt to increase electoral college in strongholds to tilt results to those favored by those in charge of elections. This is synonymous with Zimbabwe voting patterns where ghost polling stations are created in Chiredzi North and Masvingo North as well as barracks to make sure the gap created in these areas would assure them of an outright win

(f). VOTE BUYING

Voters are manipulated and ruling party always make sure that they buy loyalty of voters by giving them handouts, inputs, food humpers and other goodies. All factions in Masvingo were doing this and some were doing this on the polling day with some wards recieving ecocash transfers to vote in a preferred pattern. In Bikita South, Mutodi Energy was giving out dinner plates, money, and also promising 500usd to each ward which would manage to give him 70 votes and above out of 120 votes. His contenter Hon Jk Sithole was giving out 10kgs of mealie meal with South African logo which was donated and was destined to Cyclone Idai victims. Truly, this has been the pattern since 2000 and still remains.

(g). VOTER INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE

There were cases of voter intimidation by both factions in their strongholds. Some known supporters of the other faction in some strongholds were harrased or chased away to make sure they do not vote or witness the voting. This was rampant in Gutu and some parts of Mwenezi as well as Chiredzi. This is a lesson that Zanu PF hasn’t changed and was perfecting their rigging machinery against each other in the internal polls.

(h). SYSTEMATIC DISENFRANCHISEMENT OF VOTERS

Across the wards in Masvingo Province, the voters rolls were tampered with and those who supported rival factions failed to access their names. This was seen in some wards in Bikita and revelations revealed that wards like 4 and 6 in Bikita South were some of the victims. This is a common practice in opposition strongholds. Our elections department is closely monitoring this issue.

(I). VOTER IMPERSONATION

In cases where there some dead people or absentees, the leaders made sure that some people were called to stand in for those who were not available. It is an electoral malpractice for anyone to vote on someone’s behalf when he or she is not a registered voter. It was reported that this was the trend in Gutu and Masvingo District. This therefore calls for vigilant agents who knows people in various polling stations to curb this malpractice. This happened in the 2016 By elections in Bikita West st Marozva polling station in ward 32 where all Embassies had to rush there to witness the case that had happened where people who were not registered were voting using other people’s IDs who were not present.

(j). ASSISTED VOTERS

One wonders why someone who can’t read or write will be doing in leadership structures. Some District Chairpersons instructed all those they suspected to be assisted to vote if they wanted to remain in the party. This saw several people being assisted to vote in an internal elections. In our PRICE DOCUMENT, we are demanding that only old aged people, disabled or blind can be assisted to vote not this nonsense of Headmaters or civil servants who ask grade 7 dropouts to assist them to vote. This must end and this can only be curbed by deploying well equipped and vigilant agents at critical polling stations.

(k). IDENTICAL RESULTS FROM DIFFERENT POLLING STATIONS

The voting trend was surprising as several wards had similar results with identical results. This has been the trend in 2018 in the so called Zanu PF strongholds and this is done to manipulate the outcome of the election. All said, such machiavellianism is cause of concern to the right minded Zimbabweans.

All these and other observations shall be shared in our PRESS STATEMENT which shall be done ahead of the Voter blitz. As the Democratic Alternative, we shall be upto the task until the People’s victory is claimed.

Compiled By:

Nyahunda Struggle Desire
Director Of Elections
Masvingo Yth Assembly
0738173303 /0715742966
@NyahundaD
Nyahundasd01@gmail
[email protected]