'Security Officers Rig Elections By Undercounting Opposition Votes, Overcounting Zanu-PF Votes'

The ruling Zanu-PF party has been accused of using security officers who will be disguised as Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) officers to manipulate votes. Officials who spoke to the Zimbabwe Independent said that Zec should be forced to declare the identities of all people involved in counting votes so that their identities can be verified. Sources who spoke to the publication said,

Security officers will be deployed at every polling station, like in previous elections. They will be disguised as polling or election officers and will be given Zec (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) badges and identification.

…This involves security agents in civilian clothes and is a major cost item and the source of ‘rigging’ in the sense of manipulating the voting process in favour of Zanu PF. Many of these are recruited as Zec officers. They do all sorts of things such as under-counting of votes of the opposition (where the piles are supposed to be 10-10, the opposition pile can have 15 votes counted as 10; conversely there can be over-counting of Zanu PF votes where a pile of seven is counted as 10.

…Zec should be forced to declare who the presiding officers and, especially election officers who do the counting, are by publishing their names, their profession and place of work to enable opposition parties and other stakeholders to verify that information so people can know security agents have not been embedded as their officers. The number of election officers required is huge and that must be known and audited before election day.

More: The Zimbabwe Independent