Agents For Presidential Candidates Did Not Verify Results, It Was Done By Zec Only

Build Zimbabwe Alliance leader Noah Manyika has disputed the claim made by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) that representatives of presidential candidates verified the constituency returns for the presidential election before results were announced. Manyika argues that the representatives were merely there to watch Zec doing the verification by itself.

After announcing the results of the parliamentary elections, the ZEC Chair Priscilla Chigumba told the nation that she had come ready to also announce the presidential results but had been alerted by a colleague that there was a legal requirement for all the presidential candidates or their agents to verify them before they were announced. The impression created was that it was the candidates or their reps who were holding up the announcement. The second impression was that when she would eventually announce the results, every candidate would have verified them as being true and accurate. Note the following: the invitation in the letter dated August 1 was not to verify, but to witness the verification by ZEC itself! There is a world of difference between the two. No candidate or rep was invited to verify, so no verification occurred. Upon arrival at the HICC, our own reps were told that they had misunderstood the Chair, and that the results were in fact still coming in, and that they were just being invited to see that there were people in the collation room working on them.

https://twitter.com/drnmanyika/status/1031491222655971328

Manyika has also alleged that there was electoral fraud by Zec as the numbers released by the electoral body did not add up. MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has filed a petition at the Constitutional Court challenging the results. The petition will be heard on Wednesday.