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Zimbabwe's Elections 2013 - Index of Articles
Soldiers,
police voting will be observed
NewsDay
July 03, 2013
http://www.newsday.co.zw/2013/07/03/soldiers-police-voting-will-be-observed/
Processing of
special and postal vote application papers commenced on Monday ahead
of elections
scheduled for July 31 amid indications that close to 120 000
applications had been lodged with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC).
Speaking on
the sidelines of a training workshop for political party electoral
agents in Harare yesterday, ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau
said there was nothing unusual about the special votes as they were
meant to facilitate the early voting of security forces.
“A special
vote will take place 16 days before the actual poll. There is really
nothing special about the vote. It is just an early vote, but the
processes will just be the same,” Makarau said.
The voting would
not be taking place in military barracks or in police camps as before,
but will happen in ordinary polling stations in the wards where
everyone else would be voting at a later stage, ZEC officials said.
Addressing political
parties present at the workshop, ZEC commissioner Geoff Feltoe said
the special vote would take place over a period of two days at the
various wards in all constituencies around the country.
“Special
voting allows for members of the disciplined forces and electoral
officers, who will be outside their wards on duty at the time of
the ordinary poll, to vote,” Feltoe said.
“Application
and authorisation of special vote is open to inspection and a list
of those that will be authorised to vote will be sent to polling
stations. Special votes are now going to be counted at ward level
and the results will be combined with the tally of the special postal
votes.”
Meanwhile, ZEC
has warned political party leaders against announcing election results
before they were officially announced by the electoral body as that
constituted a criminal offence.
“Unofficial
or false declaration of results is prohibited. Under section 66A
(of the electoral
act) it is now a criminal offence for anyone including a member
of a political party to announce the result of any election as the
official result or purport to declare a candidate duly elected,”
Feltoe said.
“The overall
result of the presidential election is officially announced by the
chief elections officer. We want the right people to announce the
results, people who are authorised to do this.”
In 2008, MDC-T
secretary-general Tendai Biti was charged for prematurely announcing
party leader Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s
victory. However, the charges were later withdrawn as negotiations
towards the formation of the inclusive
government gathered momentum.
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