HARARE – Zimbabwe’s watershed poll on Wednesday was marred by embarrassing delays in delivery of ballot papers in stronghold opposition constituencies, slow moving queues and bare-faced voter intimidation by Zanu PF spooky group Forever Associates of Zimbabwe (FAZ).
Wednesday’s poll could rank as the most chaotic election since independence in the country as some polling stations, which were meant to open at 7AM, had failed to open by 5PM.
Most polling stations especially in rural areas opened their doors at 7AM, while those in urban areas particular in metropolis Harare, Bulawayo and Manicaland suffered unprecedented opening delays.
For example, at some council polling stations in Harare’s Budiriro 1, council ballot papers were delivered after 6PM.
Even after deliveries were made, the ballot papers were still not enough based on the number of registered voters in the area.
Aspiring CCC legislator, Charlton Hwende posted on his social media handles that 2,900 ballot papers delivered at a polling station had depleted in no time, forcing voters who had endured the long wait to return home.
Voting at a primary school in outgoing finance minister Mthuli Ncube’s Cowdray constituency in Bulawayo started at 1PM.
Even though balloting started on time at some polling stations, voters in snaking queues described the process as very slow.
Many prospective voters, who are part of the over 6 million registered voters in Zimbabwe, were forced to abandon long queues in frustration.
Harare and Bulawayo are strongholds for the main opposition CCC, which poses the biggest challenge to Zanu PF’s four-decade long stranglehold on Zimbabwean politics.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) attributed the flaws to administrative hitches caused by court challenges that followed nomination ahead of the vote.
Responding to the embarrassing boob, ZEC said, “delays in opening have largely been causes by delays in printing of the ballot paper arising from numerous court challenges. This has been the case with Harare and Bulawayo province.”
It said only 23 percent polling stations in Harare opened at 7AM while 75 percent were opened on time in Bulawayo while 85 percent also opened at 7AM in Manicaland.
CCC leader Nelson Chamisa, who cast his own vote in Kuwadzana earlier in the day, told a media briefing in Harare that the poll glitches were a deliberate move by ZEC to necessitate rigging.
Chamisa said the controversial poll management authority is captured by Zanu PF which he said was using its control on the levers of power to deliberately manipulate the voting process and create voter apathy.
“What is disturbing for us is that we had hoped that we will have a normal election, the election has not been normal.
“The chief election agent has already indicated what our complaints are, am sure they told you that they approached ZEC, but ZEC seems to be either weak, incapable or out of capacity to deal with issues that are supposed to be dealt with,” said Chamisa.
Commenting on the chaos, renowned political analyst and former top civil servant, Ibbo Mandaza described the situation as a disgrace.
“What a damn disgrace! All that prancing and yet a combination of incompetence and clumsy rigging by an administration bereft of both intellect and integrity,” he said.
CCC lawyer Thabani Mpofu, who led Chamisa’s constitutional court challenge against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s victory in 2018, described the ZEC farce as “a deliberate ploy to dispute the people’s victory”.
The glitches witnessed in Wednesday’s poll were not the only imperfection.
According to poll watchdogs, Election Resource Centre, and Zimbabwe Election Support Network, FAZ mounted some illegal points outside polling stations to record names of people exiting polling stations.
FAZ has no legal standing in the running of Zimbabwean elections but has mysteriously been given a handle in the poll by the Zanu PF led administration.
