MDC says ZANU PF destroyed evidence of electoral rigging

via MDC says ZANU PF destroyed evidence of electoral rigging | SW Radio Africa by Tichaona Sibanda  December 23, 2013 

Most of the evidence that could have been used to prove ZANU PF rigged the July 31st elections has been destroyed, a senior MDC-T official said on Monday.

Abednico Bhebhe, the party’s deputy national organizing secretary and MP for Nkayi South, said claims made by their leader Morgan Tsvangirai, that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) lost possession of election material, was correct.

In his end of year message last week, Tsvangirai said he had impeccable information that most of the election material used on July 31st had been destroyed to cover up the grand theft.

‘Added to that, ZEC currently is not in possession of the voters’ roll, ballot boxes and any other relevant material used in July as all such material is with the military and the intelligence structures used to rig the election,’ claimed Tsvangirai.

Asked to explain exactly what has been destroyed, Bhebhe confirmed that the party has information that all the incriminating evidence, including the inflated ballot papers and voter registration slips, has been obliterated.

‘The voting pattern on election day was supposed to be archived for a certain period of time. People who had their names missing on the voters roll, but cast their votes using slips, had their details, including ID numbers recorded at the polling stations.

‘In this case there is an official number of receipts issued by government during the voter registration exercise but on voting day the number swelled, meaning there were other dubious receipts issued. We now know that they’re destroying the extra slips and ballots and leaving an equal number to what was officially issued by the government,’ Bhebhe said.

In a report compiled after the election, the MDC-T also claimed that ZANU PF’s rigging machinery printed 10 million sets of ballots for local governance, parliamentary and presidential elections against the 6.4 million voters that ZEC claimed were on the voters’ roll.

There are allegations that 5 million ballots were handed over to ZEC two days before voting commenced. The other batch of 5 million ballot papers was channelled through the army bases and used for ballot stuffing.

Bhebhe added this was the reason why the party has decided to embark on a global advocacy campaign to the African Union, SADC and the international community, to apply pressure on ZANU PF to release the voters roll.

‘They will have to be pushed to release the voters roll in compliance with the regional regulations on elections. The government of ZANU PF are now like warlords and thugs and have taken it upon themselves to rule Zimbabwe by hook or crook or like private property,’ said Bhebhe.