Opinion / Columnist
State of the race - Two days to go
21 Aug 2023 at 13:47hrs | Views
There are just two days to go before voting commences in Zimbabwe's harmonized general elections. Polls open at 07:00 on Wednesday 23 August and close at 19:00. 6.6 million Zimbabweans are expected to cast their votes, with results legally required to be announced within five days of the final ballots being marked.
Against a backdrop of high unemployment, a cost-of-living crisis, and rampant corruption by the ruling ZANU-PF, the vast majority of Zimbabweans are now yearning for change. 69.4% told a poll by Elite Africa Research that the country is heading in the wrong direction.
The same poll, conducted in June, showed 47.6% of Zimbabweans back CCC leader Nelson Chamisa, compared to 38.7% for President Mnangagwa. This supports research carried out for the Brenthurst Foundation in January, which showed Chamisa would win 53% of the vote.
Change is possible with the CCC. But only if these elections are free and fair.
As a party the CCC is highly concerned by verified reports of journalist accreditation being denied to international correspondents, without any explanation offered. Once again the government isn't playing by the basic rules of election observation and we call on observer missions to take note and condemn this action in the strongest possible terms.
EVERY VOTE SHOULD COUNT
To help ensure that Wednesday's elections are fair and that every vote counts, the CCC is deploying a Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) system. The Citizens DemoVox PVT system ensures that we will not only have access to the real vote count but –above all – that we have the capacity to provide hard, independently verifiable evidence to back up our victory.
For a recap of the Citizens DemoVox PVT system, read our first monitor email here.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM US
Throughout election day and the count, we will be receiving and verifying reports of incidents from our polling agents. We will then relay major incidents via our monitor.
This includes:
We are liaising with internet freedom group Netblocks to report and verify restrictions to internet access, including social media blocks. These will then be published on Netblocks' website and the media will be alerted.
Be sure to check our monitor emails to stay up to date throughout polling day and receive updates on the PVT process.
Dr. Tapiwa Shumba
Executive Technical Assistant
President's Office
+263 78 213 8875
Against a backdrop of high unemployment, a cost-of-living crisis, and rampant corruption by the ruling ZANU-PF, the vast majority of Zimbabweans are now yearning for change. 69.4% told a poll by Elite Africa Research that the country is heading in the wrong direction.
The same poll, conducted in June, showed 47.6% of Zimbabweans back CCC leader Nelson Chamisa, compared to 38.7% for President Mnangagwa. This supports research carried out for the Brenthurst Foundation in January, which showed Chamisa would win 53% of the vote.
Change is possible with the CCC. But only if these elections are free and fair.
As a party the CCC is highly concerned by verified reports of journalist accreditation being denied to international correspondents, without any explanation offered. Once again the government isn't playing by the basic rules of election observation and we call on observer missions to take note and condemn this action in the strongest possible terms.
EVERY VOTE SHOULD COUNT
To help ensure that Wednesday's elections are fair and that every vote counts, the CCC is deploying a Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) system. The Citizens DemoVox PVT system ensures that we will not only have access to the real vote count but –above all – that we have the capacity to provide hard, independently verifiable evidence to back up our victory.
For a recap of the Citizens DemoVox PVT system, read our first monitor email here.
Throughout election day and the count, we will be receiving and verifying reports of incidents from our polling agents. We will then relay major incidents via our monitor.
This includes:
- Electoral violence
- Voter intimidation
- Ballot/ballot box tampering
- Internet restrictions/shutdowns
We are liaising with internet freedom group Netblocks to report and verify restrictions to internet access, including social media blocks. These will then be published on Netblocks' website and the media will be alerted.
Be sure to check our monitor emails to stay up to date throughout polling day and receive updates on the PVT process.
Dr. Tapiwa Shumba
Executive Technical Assistant
President's Office
+263 78 213 8875
Source - Dr. Tapiwa Shumba
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