Maravi

Verification of Zim presidential election results starts today

Verification of Zim presidential election results starts today
By George Chellah in Harare, Zimbabwe
Thursday May 01, 2008 [04:00]

THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has announced that the verification and collation process of the presidential election results will start today. And Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri said the police are determined to investigate electoral fraud cases in the March 29 elections, stating and that they had so far dealt with a total of 100 cases with 108 suspects already assisting with investigations.

ZEC chief elections officer Lovemore Sekeramayi announced through the state broadcaster on Tuesday, that the verification and collation process would commence today at 14:00 hours.

He said the process would be conducted at the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC), where the electoral commission's National Command Centre is situated.

Sekeramayi urged the four candidates that participated in the 2008 presidential election or their chief election agents to attend the verification and collation process.

He said the process would culminate into the announcement of the presidential election results.

ZEC has completed the vote-recount in the 23 contested House of Assembly seats and latest statistics put the main opposition MDC-Tsvangirai faction still ahead of the ruling ZANU-PF with a comfortable margin in terms of seats in the country's Parliament, which effectively will rule out the ruling party's chances to regain control of the legislature.

ZEC ordered a recount of votes in 23 constituencies after the ruling ZANU-PF had requested for the verification of presidential ballots on grounds that there was under-counting of its votes and inflation of opposition ballots.

And during a press conference over the weekend, ZEC chairman justice George Chiweshe announced that the commission was scheduled to invite the four presidential candidates that contested last month's election to a verification and collation exercise.

According to the electoral commission, the presidential results that have not been released since the nation voted almost a month ago will be announced once all parties reach an agreement on the final figures.

It is expected that the statistics would be compared at the end of the verification and collation process and similar figures would show that the final opinion was accurate, but any inconsistency would be crosschecked.

And speaking at a pass-out parade in Harare, Gen Chihuri said the police were determined to investigate electoral fraud cases in the March 29 polls.

"The mushrooming of electoral fraud cases involving the switching of votes to preferred candidates, especially of the opposition, deliberate omission to enter or declare relevant electoral data, understating and overstating electoral figures on forms V11 and V23 and voting twice, among others, are worrying," he said.

Gen Chihuri warned that the people involved in such vices would be brought to book and prosecuted.

He said placing wrong candidates in offices that were not selected by people was evil and should never be allowed at all cost.

Chihuri urged Zimbabweans to accord the electoral commission due respect and recognition in the discharge of its constitutional mandate.

"No amount of intimidation or criticism should deter ZEC from doing a thorough job because the future of the country is delicately balanced in their hands," Gen Chihuri said.

About 215 policemen and women graduated at the pass-out parade after undergoing a six-month training at Morris Depot in Harare.

Labels: ZANU-PF, ZEC

posted by MrK @ 6:01 AM