ZEC deletes Presidential poll results from website

THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has deleted last week's Presidential election results from its website.

Its Excel spreadsheet has also been removed from the site, without the usual explanation.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa retained his post with 52.6% of the vote, in a poll that the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) intends to contest in court.

CCC President Nelson Chamisa, who got 44% according to the election management body, claims he won the election with over 60% of the vote, against ZEC's Sunday results.

A ruling party affiliate Zanu-PF Patriots claimed Team Pachedu, the pressure group keeping ZEC on its toes, was to blame for the absence of results.

"ZEC's website is down, and we all know the culprit, it's PacheduZW. We are in a dangerous cyber war, it's unfortunate that CCC works with an institution that attacks State Institutions," it said on Twitter.

"Pachedu's plan is simple, paralyze and discredit ZEC. We defeated Chamisa, we will defeat the government funding Pachedu."

Chamisa rejected Zimbabwe's general election results vowing his party will not wait five more years to take action.

His position has been further cemented by abrasive Election Observer reports from regional body SADC, the Carter Centre and EU who all agree Zimbabwe's electoral field was neither free nor the conditions conducive for a free plebiscite.

Team Pachedu is currently dissecting ZEC operations, accusing it of keeping the voters roll secret, ignoring delimitation boundaries, allowing people without national identification cards to vote and allowing quasi-security organisation Forever Friends Zimbabwe (FAZ) to intimidate voters in a long list of issues.