Special votes verification process begins

Politics
THE opening and verification of the special votes by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) continued yesterday and was expected to be completed by end of day.

THE opening and verification of the special votes by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) continued yesterday and was expected to be completed by end of day.

REPORT BY OUR STAFF

ZEC officials yesterday however said sorting of the ballots in accordance with their destination would take longer.

The team on Friday battled to finish their work and only wrapped up for the day in the early hours of yesterday.

By lunchtime yesterday, boxes from Harare, Bulawayo, Masvingo, Manicaland, Mashonaland (East, North, Central) and Matabeleland had been opened. A total of 4 108 votes were recorded, while 398 ballots were unclaimed.

Meanwhile, some observers were keen to know what would happen to unclaimed ballots.

A ZEC official said they would be destroyed after the elections.

“The unclaimed ballots will not be opened but will be destroyed after the election. For some reason, these were not opened at their respective stations. It could be that they arrived late,” the official told observers at the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) yesterday.

ZEC chief elections officer, Lovemore Sekeramayi on Friday said the process had gone well.

He said it was impossible to rig elections under such a transparent process.

ZEC however, has received wide criticism for the botched special voting process which resulted in many failing to vote.

Only about half of the 69 000 government personnel managed to cast their ballots in two days under the special voting ahead of the July 31 elections date.