Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) Chairperson Justice Rita Makarau has revealed that political parties failed to cite any anomalies in the Voters Roll during the Voter Registration exercise after the electoral body invited all stakeholders to identify irregularities on the electoral register.
This afternoon, MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai declared the 2013 harmonised elections "null and void" citing the "shambolic Voters Roll" as one of the main reasons for the decision.
In an interview with the Herald this afternoon, Justice Makarau said political parties had ample time to assist in the cleaning of the voters roll well ahead of polling.
"During the two voter registration exercises, we called on all stakeholders to raise any irregularities on the voters roll. To our surprise, not even a single stakeholder came to us to raise any anomaly," she said, adding that it is surprising that some of the irregularities are being cited after polling.
She said the electoral body had been encouraged by the report made by the Sadc ECF that "no Voters Roll in the world is perfect".
Justice Makarau said the status of the Voters Roll cannot be used to drown the views of the people.
"The Voters Roll does not vote. It cannot drown the views of the people," she said.
She said the number of people who were turned away and those who were assisted to during the elections was normal.
Justice Makarau encouraged people to disregard unofficial election results saying ZEC is the only body mandated with announcing the poll outcome.
Meanwhile, head of the African Union Observer Mission and former Nigerian president General Olusegun Obasanjo has reiterated that the harmonised election held yesterday were credible and its outcome is reflective of the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe.
General Obasanjo said this soon after meeting President Mugabe to bid him farewell at State House this afternoon.
"I have been able to witness an election that is free... yes there are incidences here and there but they are not incidences that will flaw the election to the point of not reflecting the will of the people of this country, so we wish all the people of this country all the best," he said.
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OK, so the ZEC asked all stakeholders to raise issues with irregularities in the voters roll and got no response. Yet, how is it possible for anyone to raise irregularities if they haven't seen the actual voters roll? When did the stakeholders get a copy of the voters roll that they could analyze? Apparently a day AFTER the election, the non-ZANU-PF parties have still not gotten a searchable, electronic copy of the voters roll!
Regarding the actual election...
Lets see... There were about 6.2 million registered voters on the voters list. We're told that over 2 million of those names were of dead people, leaving 4.2 million to elect the president of Zimbabwe. However the local NGO network estimates that about another 1 million registered urban voters were prevented from voting because their names had been subsequently removed from the voters roll. That leaves 3.2 million people to elect the president in a country where most people seem to want change. Mugabe supporters are claiming that he has won a higher percentage than the 70% that he win in the election of 1980. 70% of 3.2 million voters is a little over 2 million, and… WHAT A COINCIDENCE?… There were about 2 million extra ballots printed by the ZEC! I wonder if the ZEC can show the world 2 million unused ballot papers? I doubt it. Mugabe will claim that those asking to see them are just sore losers.