THE embattled Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) is once again entangled in a rigging storm amid allegations by some data experts that the electoral body’s servers are being hosted by Africom, a company believed to be owned by the army.
Fernhaven Investments (Private) Limited, an investment
vehicle of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, is said to be the majority shareholder
in Africom.
This has added onto a myriad of other complaints on how Zec
is administering elections, with opposition parties recently complaining that
they were not given the voters rolls for the March 26 by-elections, while Zanu
PF was allegedly given the voters roll which was in colour and with pictures.
Zec dismissed the allegation that Africom, a leading
converged communication service provider, was hosting their servers.
However, the electoral management body failed to prove that
it has an alternative host. “Zec has no server hosted by any external
organisation, including Africom,” Zec spokesperson Jasper Mangwana told NewsDay
yesterday.
But data experts Team Pachedu insisted that there was
overwhelming evidence that Zec servers were being hosted by Africom.
“When the Zec website was hacked on August 1, 2018,
forensic experts investigated. They found that Zec was hosted on an Africom
server, IP 41.57.65.19, sharing hosting with other sites like netguardsec.com.
Shared hosting means the server was not at Zec,” Team Pachedu said.
“The website was developed in a rush by Africom and
uploaded on the Africom domain zec.org.zw, not the usual government’s
zec.gov.zw. The code Africom used was recycled and had significant security flaws.
This made hacking easy.
“The same shared server that Africom hosted the Zec site in
2018, 41.57.65.19 is the same server that was being used by the just deleted
sub-domain training.zec.org.zw. This server is currently hosting 54 websites,
confirming Zec is not hosting it, but Africom.”
Army spokesperson Colonel Alphios Makotore dismissed the
allegations saying the army does not run elections.
“Talk to Zec, the army does not run elections in Zimbabwe.
You have called the wrong place. I do not work at Zec or Africom,” Makotore
said.
Listed Africom numbers were not getting through yesterday.
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