PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ruling Zanu PF claimed a crushing two-thirds majority in the parliamentary election, while the results for the presidential poll were held to allow contestants to verify them before they were released.
BY RICHARD CHIDZA
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba said the poll management body delayed announcing the results of the presidential ballot to allow for verification by contestants and their agents.
“We had initially said this morning (yesterday) that we wanted to start announcing the results of the presidential election. I was advised by the secretariat that the returns of the presidential results are with us here at the national command centre.
“Due to the unprecedented number of candidates, all 23 presidential candidates have to verify the results. I was reminded of a provision in the Electoral Act that requires presidential candidates through their agents to go through a verification process of the V11 Forms. They have got to sift through them and decide whether they agree with the tally done by the secretariat,” Chigumba said, adding some agents were yet to present themselves for this legal process.
Mnangagwa’s chief election agent, Ziyambi Ziyambi, yesterday said they had begun the process.
“We have started. It’s being done per polling station and that is what we are going through now. We expect that we should be done by tomorrow (today),” Ziyambi said. MDC Alliance presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa, who has already claimed victory in the elections, also had his agents going through the process. Chamisa’s chief election agent Jameson Timba confirmed that his team had begun the process.
“It’s a tedious process and we have begun it. It might take two days or more,” Timba said.
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According to the law, Zec has until Saturday to announce all results from the general election.
With complaints mainly from the opposition, Chigumba said the process would allow parties to satisfy themselves with the process Zec had undertaken. Meanwhile, Zanu PF won a two-thirds majority in Parliament according to results announced so far, with the MDC Alliance garnering 61 seats.
