Zvimba East Zanu PF candidate Francis Mukwangwariwa was
defeated by Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) candidate Oliver Mutasa by 189
votes, while in Seke constituency, Zanu PF candidate Munyaradzi Tobias Kashambe
lost to CCC’s William Madzimbamuto by 755 votes.
In their court petition the losing candidates have cited
the winners and Zec as the respondents. They are seeking an order to reverse
the Zec declaration and that the respondents be ordered to pay the costs.
Mukwangwariwa submitted that he premised his petition on
electoral irregularity that occurred on the day of voting on August 23.
“On the day of voting and at Stapleford Siding polling
station there were various electoral irregularities that occurred more
particularly in that: The Zec officials who were at the said polling station
were giving voters aligned to Mutasa more ballot papers than what is required.
Some of the voters aligned to Mutasa were being given five ballot papers
instead of three ballot papers. The extra two ballot papers were for the
National Assembly elections ballots,” he averred.
“My election polling agents noticed the anomaly and
complained to the Zec official and the later did not address the issue in a
meaningful way. My polling agents witnessed and confirmed one voter namely
Oliver ID 63-163346-W-63, who had been given five ballot papers with extra two
parliamentary ballots all of which had been voted in favour of Mutasa,”
Mukwangwariwa wrote in his affidavit.
He claimed that despite the police officers at the polling
station having been alerted Zec did not address the anomaly.
“The declaration of poll results made by Zec also does not
show any rejected votes or percentages in the constituency. This is an
irregularity in view of the fact that my polling agent had noticed people
voting with extra ballot papers. The declaration of the poll results by Zec was
done whereas my polling agent did not sign the V23B form for the particular
polling station ... The reason why my polling agent refused to sign the V23B
form was that it was not in tandem with what had been observed at the polling
station,” he submitted.
“The irregularity is made worse in that the V23B form shows
that there are 606 votes that were rejected, whereas the declaration of poll
results shows that there were no votes that were rejected,” he added, while
noting that the final results were declared without a proper verification and
reconciliation of the votes cast.
The respondents are yet to respond.
In Seke constituency, Kashambe is seeking an order for a
recount of votes arguing that there were mathematical errors in compiling the
total number of votes received thereby inflating the number of votes received
for Madzimbamuto.
The losing Zanu PF candidate alleges corruption, saying
there were old-age voters who were turned away for failure to locate their
names despite the fact that no assistance was given to them.
“During counting times, polling agents representing the
applicant’s political party at some points were chased away from the polling
room, while respondent’s agents remained,” Kashambe alleges. Newsday
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