By Ndaba Nhuku| When she rose up to announce that Emmerson Mnangagwa is the winner of the dodgy 2018 elections, Justice Priscilla Chigumba appeared on National Television with a visibly bloodied face, and bruises all over her countenance.

• Who beat her up?  

• Why did she speak like a subdued, tortured parrot on that night of nights? 

A quick flashback – people recall that 6 ZEC officials died in a short period: four ZEC officials (then) in a period of three months, just after the 2013 elections. The causes of deaths ranged from suspected foul play, to poisoning, heart, lung and renal failure, to name a few.

Shupikai Mashereni, who was the director of public relations at ZEC waa the first casualty. Shupikai Mashereni was killed shortly after he approached the then CIO boss, Mr Didymus Mutasa for a Headlands farm promised as a reward for a sterling job for the 2013 fraudulent election. Mutasa promised Mr Shupikai Mashereni who was then a senior official at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for a sterling job in twisting the 2013 election figures in favour of ZANU PF. Impeccable emails in ZimEye’s  possession show the man revealing the secret deal to his close family, shortly before he was killed.

Mashereni later died under mysterious circumstances in February 2014, shortly after demanding from Mutasa the 70 hectare Headlands farm promised to him before the July 2013 elections.

A ZEC official speaking exclusively to ZimEye, said “he suddenly turned purple’ (skid colour) shortly before collapsing forever.

After this one, sudden fate hit Mr Lovemore Chipunza Sekeramayi the Chief Elections Officer for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. He was 67. He passed on while attending a meeting of Chief Elections Officers for electoral management bodies in the SADC region in Swaziland. Sekeramayi died two months after Shupikai Mashereni.

Then there was the acting director for public relations, Mr Tendayi Pamire who died at B.S Leon Medical Centre in Harare on July 10th 2014. He was 46.

Then later there was Mr Juba Chekenyere, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) director of administration. He died on the 16 July 2014 He was the fourth top official at the commission to pass on within three months

Therr was the elections manager Mr Kenneth Kwaramba who died after falling ill while chairing a Hurungwe West planning meeting in Karoi in May 2015. Kwaramba the government report says, started complaining of a common poisoning symptom.