STAKEHOLDERS in the harmonised elections have accused the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) of granting Zanu PF access to the Biometric
Voters Roll (BVR) database where the ruling party accessed registered voters’
contact details before sending them text messages soliciting for votes.
MDC Alliance principal, Tendai Biti, described the issue as
a “the boob of the century” by Zec.
“This is the mother of all election frauds. It ends all
pretence of Zec’s neutrality and shows that Zec are working in connivance with
Zanu PF to rig the will of the people. It shows that Zec has given access of
the voters roll and its database to Zanu PF,” he said.
“Cde Nyoni may I have your support to be President, Cde
(Terrence) Mukupe 0779882507 for MP on 30 (July). Zanu PF values peace and
development,” read a message sent to voters registered in Harare East in Shona.
Those in Matabeleland got messages in IsiNdebele.
Zec, however, yesterday claimed its hands were clean and
promised toprobe the matter.
Zec chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba denied releasing
voters’ phone numbers to political parties.
“Would you like your picture, your ID number, your address
and telephone number to be floating around somewhere in the public arena? We
have a duty to actually protect our registered voters from identity theft and
all sort of other things that could happen,” Chigumba said.
Zec Commissioner Netsai Mushonga said political parties
could have done their own market research.
“As Zec, we distributed the voters roll and it had 11
columns and your phone numbers were not distributed to the political parties.
“So we are not the ones who distributed that information.
You are also aware there are so many instances where you leave your phone
numbers where you buy your goods (from) service providers,” she said.
Another Zec commissioner, Qhubani Moyo, accused mobile
phone operators of receiving money to share the data.
“You may want to know that service providers do have a
facility in which anyone who is doing bulk marketing can pay them to have
access to the database of their clients… That information is straight from the
service providers and we would like the media to assist us talk to the public
that we are not responsible for that,” he said.
Chigumba who previously said the “USSD code” used to
confirm registration was secure and was not given to service providers,
however, said they shared that information with the three mobile network
service providers in the country.
“What I will say in our defence is that, look, we will
investigate because what we doing in this room is speculating.
We will investigate and find out the source of this data.
What you are actually saying in your intervention is, strictly speaking, not
correct.
“We did have a USSD code where you could actually check
whether you were registered to vote during the inspection period, so it’s
actually not correct to say Zec is the only one which had access to the
information,” Chigumba said.
Econet has however distanced itself from the matter.
“Econet holds customer and client data in the strictest
confidence, in line with the requirements of the law. It does not give or sell
any customer data to third parties,” read a statement by the service provider.
Newsday
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