Staff Writer
The police raid on Election Resource Centre (ERC) and Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has not only prevented an independent nonpartisan verification of the official results as announced by Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, but also cast a shadow over the entire election process.
ERC and ZESN jointly deployed thousands of accredited observers to every province, district and constituency of the country using a statistically-sound sample to systematically observe the elections on behalf of all Zimbabweans, and independent of any other effort.
This included the collection of publicly available information in order to provide stakeholders and citizens with factual statements on the conduct of the voting and counting process, as well as the tabulation and announcement of results.
In a joint statement, ERC and ZESN said the data centres were legal and recognized in the electoral act, and had been a routine observation activity in Zimbabwe since 2008.
“ZESN deployed sample-based observation (SB0) during the 2018 elections made public its projections after ZEC declared the presidential results. The projections were all received by President ED Mnangagwa who tweeted affirming the SBO projections.
“The objective SBO projections were also relied upon by ZEC in the Constitutional Court during the hearing of the presidential petition in 2018. ZESN and ERC were also encouraged by ZEC, who through ZEC chairperson, noted that civil society as well as political parties should conduct parallel voter tabulations (PVT) during the 2023 elections.
However, on election night, the watchdogs said, just as the counting process was concluding in many parts of the country, government security forces raided ERC and ZESN’s data centre, arresting all present staff and volunteers and confiscating all equipment.
“They also targeted and seized other staff in nearby locations, in some cases violently. The security forces’ uncalled and unjustified actions not only prevented an independent nonpartisan verification of the official results as announced by the ZEC, but also cast a shadow over the entire election process,” the election watchdogs said.
“Since election day, ERC and ZESN have continued to receive reports of observers and staff being targeted, threatened and attacked, including one incident of an observer house being torched hours after the declaration of the presidential election results. This ongoing intimidation and silencing of anyone who can provide verification and transparency to the electoral results by state actors fundamentally undermines their credibility of these elections.”
The ERC and ZESN have called on the government to drop the charges levied against their staff and observers, and to take urgent measures to protect and stop harassment of accredited citizen election observers.
“To increase transparency of the tabulation process, we also call on the ZEC to make disaggregated polluting station results publicly of the election, ERC and ZESN are committed to the peace.
“We call for peace, for anyone who is aggrieved to seek redress through lawful means, and for the Government of Zimbabwe to respect the rights of citizens. In line with our mandate and commitment to electoral integrity, ERC and ZESN will continue to observe the election during the post-election period to through the resolution of election disputes and the taking of office by the duly elected candidates.”
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