News / National
Chamisa's CCC claims to have unearthed voters roll and ballot papers anomalies
23 Mar 2022 at 01:36hrs | Views
CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) claims it has unearthed serious anomalies on the Pumula voters roll and irregularities on the Nkulumane ballot papers which are going to be used in the Saturday by-elections.
The party says the anomalies were discovered Tuesday during a voter roll and ballot paper inspection meeting called by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) at its offices in Bulawayo ahead of the elections.
Parliamentary and council candidates attended the meeting.
In an interview with Newzimbabwe.com, CCC Bulawayo provincial spokesperson Swithern Chirowodza claimed that Pumula, which is one of the two constituencies being contested in Bulawayo, has exactly the same number of voters as those who voted in 2018 elections.
"As of today, Pumula Constituency has the same number of voters as contained in the 2018 voters roll. This clearly raises eyebrows because clearly it shows that either the voters roll has not been cleaned since 2018 or there has not been receipting of transfers and subtraction of voters from the constituency. Our worry is that this scenario dovetails with allegations of vote rigging recently raised by (pressure group) Team Pachedu," said Chirowodza.
According to the 2018 voters roll, Pumula Constituency had 24 009 registered voters, the same number as that on the current one.
"It is impossible to fathom a situation in which there was no cause for change in the status quo. The most probable is the voter roll was not cleaned because rigging is a process. We pray that ZEC will not use the Pumula voters roll to rig the by-elections," Chirowodza said.
The CCC's spokesperson also complained about blurred candidates and symbols pictures on some ballot papers in Nkulumane constituency.
"The numbers of faint photos on the ballot papers is significant. Our team discovered more than 300 unclear photos on the ballot papers. This is clearly a cause for concern. We need to institute a new ballot which will show new symbols in party's traditional colours. We believe there is still time and ZEC can rectify this anomaly," added Chirowodza.
The party says the anomalies were discovered Tuesday during a voter roll and ballot paper inspection meeting called by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) at its offices in Bulawayo ahead of the elections.
Parliamentary and council candidates attended the meeting.
In an interview with Newzimbabwe.com, CCC Bulawayo provincial spokesperson Swithern Chirowodza claimed that Pumula, which is one of the two constituencies being contested in Bulawayo, has exactly the same number of voters as those who voted in 2018 elections.
"As of today, Pumula Constituency has the same number of voters as contained in the 2018 voters roll. This clearly raises eyebrows because clearly it shows that either the voters roll has not been cleaned since 2018 or there has not been receipting of transfers and subtraction of voters from the constituency. Our worry is that this scenario dovetails with allegations of vote rigging recently raised by (pressure group) Team Pachedu," said Chirowodza.
According to the 2018 voters roll, Pumula Constituency had 24 009 registered voters, the same number as that on the current one.
"It is impossible to fathom a situation in which there was no cause for change in the status quo. The most probable is the voter roll was not cleaned because rigging is a process. We pray that ZEC will not use the Pumula voters roll to rig the by-elections," Chirowodza said.
The CCC's spokesperson also complained about blurred candidates and symbols pictures on some ballot papers in Nkulumane constituency.
"The numbers of faint photos on the ballot papers is significant. Our team discovered more than 300 unclear photos on the ballot papers. This is clearly a cause for concern. We need to institute a new ballot which will show new symbols in party's traditional colours. We believe there is still time and ZEC can rectify this anomaly," added Chirowodza.
Source - NewZimbabwe
