Special vote delays, ZEC blames MDCs appeals

THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has blamed a glut of appeals from the MDC-T and MDC over the results of the Nomination Court for the slow start of Special Voting yesterday.

Appeals, ZEC said, caused delays in the dispatching of ballot papers for special voting that began yesterday.

The Electoral Court had to contend with 47 nomination appeals.

Out of these, 17 were successful, while 12 were thrown out, with the parties withdrawing 18 others.

ZEC deputy chairperson Mrs Joyce Kazembe told journalists yesterday that the commission did not foresee such a problem arising for harmonised elections set for July 31.

She said the printing of ballot papers for the harmonised elections would be finished by the end of next week, making ZEC ready to dispatch them to polling stations on time.

Mrs Kazembe said the appeals meant that the commission's designers had to wait for the Electoral Court to clear the cases before they could print ballot papers.

She said ZEC only received pictures for some of the candidates last Friday and was left with one day to print enough ballots.

The designers were not clear on the final list of the nominated candidates since some of the court cases had a bearing on who would appear.

The Nomination Court sat on June 28 to receive the names of candidates for the July 31 harmonised polls, but at least 47 cases were filed at the Electoral Court against the results.

The cases were mainly from the MDC formations and the court had to work extra hard to clear them in time for special voting after some of the cases were spread among 16 judges in Harare and three in Bulawayo.

Mrs Kazembe said special voting began yesterday in nine provinces, except Masvingo, with 6 092 ballot papers being dispatched countrywide.

The other ballots, enough to cover all the voters, were expected to reach their destinations by last night.

"The printing of ballot papers delayed even beyond our expectation," Mrs Kazembe said.

"This was due to a number of reasons; chief among them was the delay in finalising the designing of ballot papers in those wards and constituencies where the Nomination Court decision was under challenge.

"Our designers were waiting for the decision of the Electoral Court and in some cases for the details and pictures of the successful candidates some of which were submitted to us on Friday July 12, leaving us with only yesterday to finalise all the necessary processes."

The appeals included cases of suspended MDC-T councillors who failed to file their nomination papers due to pending cases as well as matters of aspiring candidates whose applications failed after their names could not be found on the voters' roll.

MDC-T had several cases in which the party was fighting its former members who successfully filed nomination papers using a logo that the party officials felt resembled theirs.

Mrs Kazembe said printing of ballot papers was in progress, with all voters expected to have cast their ballot papers by close of polling today.

"We have a helicopter, under police escort, which will dispatch ballot papers to areas which we cannot supply by cars," she said.

"All polling stations being used for special voting operate on the basis of an ordinary polling station and if there are still queues of people wanting to vote by the time of closing the polls tomorrow, those people will be given a chance to cast their vote."

Mrs Kazembe said as of yesterday, Matabeleland North had 1 724 ballot papers, Matabeleland South 153, Mashonaland Central 450, Manicaland 127, Mashonaland East 569 and Mashonaland West 435.

Midlands received 1 204 ballots, Harare 566 and Bulawayo 864.

At least 87 316 people applied for special voting and ZEC was still to release the number of applicants approved.

Mrs Kazembe said observers and political parties who intended to sleep at the polling stations monitoring the ballot boxes were free to do so.

"If they want to see that there is no staffing (of ballot boxes), they are free to do so," she said. "We have adequate security. Because of time limitations, we were not able to ask for a printed voters roll, but we have lists which are open for inspection by the public and scrutiny."

Mrs Kazembe said all ballot papers had serial numbers for accountability purposes.

"We had not anticipated court challenges, but we are ready for the polls. By end of next week all ballot papers will be ready as we gear for the harmonised elections on July 31," said Mrs Kazembe.

She said they were yet to receive claims by the MDC-T that 30 police officers at Mt Pleasant Hall smashed windows at the polling station protesting the slow pace of voting.

"If there is a case like that we will investigate, but we did not receive any report to that effect," said Mrs Kazembe.