By Leopold Munhende, Chief Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has once again been caught up in a fresh rigging storm as allegations emerged officers have been tampering with ballot papers ahead of the weekend elections.
Zimbabweans will be voting for prospective MPs and councillors to replace those either recalled by the MDC-T or died after the 2018 elections.
Allegations that illegal polling stations have been set up, some in the bushes of Kwekwe, have also been levelled against the electoral body.
ZEC has been in the past weeks faced a barrage of criticism after opposition allegations of voters roll manipulation came up.
Team Pachedu, an online pressure group, has over the past month been analysing and publishing anomalies in the voters roll.
Videos of a ZEC official allegedly tampering with ballot papers were sent to NewZimbabwe.com Friday. At law, nobody is allowed access to voting material in the absence of candidates and polling agents.
“We repeat – ZEC is unfit for purpose. Our members caught a ZEC official red-handed at Mhizha Primary School with ballot papers to be used in (the weekend) by-election.
“Neither our candidate nor his agents were invited to observe this as required by law. ZEC, why are you rigging” Ctizens Coalition for Change (CCC) spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said on Twitter.
A video seen by NewZimbabwe.com’s shows CCC youth assembly secretary for elections Eric Gono at a polling station deep in the bushes of Kwekwe.
There were no houses on sight and the polling station is allegedly not on ZEC’s official list.
“We are worried about this polling station in the bushes. We cannot have a polling station in the middle of the bush,” Gono can be heard saying.
“Houses are very far from this polling station but we are seeing a polling station in the middle of a bush here.”
According to Mahere, ZEC has gone as far as acknowledging it will use a voters roll that is defective and full or errors.
She claimed this was another ploy to rig the elections against them.
In Harare CCC challenged a decision by ZEC to print two pages of the infamous V11 forms instead of the traditional one.
It claims that will open avenues for vote count changes.
