Chamisa does not have all the 12,374 V11s: The case of Chirumanzu-Zibagwe

Factually it is not true that, unlike in 2018, Chamisa this time round has all the V11s from the 12,374 polling stations that were created for the 2023 harmonised general election, because he and his CCC political party did not deploy polling agents at all the 12,374 polling stations in the country's 210 constituencies to secured the necessary V11s, which are the primary election returns required to prove any rigging claim.

For example in Chirumanzu-Zibagwe, a key constituency in the Midlands Province, Chamisa's CCC did not have any polling agents at all at many polling stations such as Musena Clinic, Simon Muzenda Primary School, Huchu Primary School, Sebakwe Game Park Tent and Moffat Primary School.

To make this bad situation worse, at some of the polling stations where polling agents were deployed, a number of the agents withheld V11s from the polling stations they had been deployed because they had not been paid their allowances. Examples of polling stations where CCC polling agents went rogue and refused to give the party copies of V11s include Piki and Mosmy in Chirumanzu-Zibagwe constituency.

The verifiable case of Chirumanzu-Zibagwe constituency is but one out of many constituencies whose polling stations in fact did not have CCC polling stations.

Chirumanzu-Zibagwe constituency is instructive because it used to be represented by Mnangagwa, Chamisa's main electoral opponent who won the 2023 presidential election whose result was declared last night.

It is mind boggling that, as an opposition candidate in the just concluded presidential election, Chamisa was so reckless and so unstrategic as not to ensure that he deployed polling candidates in Mnangagwa's home constituency in order to secure the all important V11s to enable his auditing  and confirmation of the result for the presidential election declared last night.

Three inevitable conclusions from this.

Firstly, by failing to deploy polling agents at polling stations in the home constituency of his main rival, and objectively speaking, Chamisa rendered himself useless as a presidential election candidate and not ready for the challenge; and as such, he is not entitled to make any excuses to justify his electoral defeat, which was predictable.

Secondly, the unassailable and verifiable fact that CCC did not deploy polling agents at many polling stations in Chirumanzu-Zibagwe constituency  –  a backyard of his main rival – means that Chamisa is nit being truthful and is thus misleading the public and the wider world in Sadc, African Union and beyond when he claims that he has all the V11s from the election.

Thirdly, without the V11s due to his failure to deploy polling agents at all polling stations, Chamisa has no basis whatsoever for challenging the result of the presidential election declared last night.

One cannot base claims of election rigging on the basis of an insufficient number of polling stations or on the basis of phantom V11s that are simply not there.

What is unfortunate is that what has happened this year is a repeat of the fiasco that happened in 2018 when Chamisa did not have polling agents in 518 polling stations, a reality that made it impossible for him to prove his allegations of rigging in his Constitutional Court rigging case.

After the 2018 debacle and ahead of the 2023 harmonised general election, Chamisa assured anyone who cared to listen that the 2018 fiasco would not be repeated in 2023.

But alas, he has repeated the 2018 fiasco in 2023. Not having polling agents in an election has consequences: no polling agents, no V11s, no case!