Voting closes, ballot counting underway – ZEC

Harare, (New Ziana) – Voting in all constituencies where by-elections were held on Saturday was peaceful, and ended on schedule, a senior election official said.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chief elections officer, Utoile Silaigwana told New Ziana turnout averaged 40 percent in most of the constituencies.

He said in some places, such as Lupane East and Beitbridge West constituencies, heavy rains affected voter turnout.
High temperature in others was a deterrent.

But Silaigwana said no violations were reported anywhere, and all polling stations closed on schedule.
Vote counting, he added, had began everywhere, and results were expected shortly.

“We are happy with the way the process went. There was no incidents of violations; it was all peaceful,” Silaigwana said.

“After polling closed, the process to count the votes began,” he added.

By-elections were held in several constituencies on Saturday to fill parliamentary and local government seats left vacant after the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party recalled some of its elected representatives in October.

The party is imploding, torn apart by a power struggle between CCC leader Nelson Chamisa, and secretary general Sengeso Tshabangu.

The recalls were made by Tshabangu after accusing the legislators of irregularly running on the party’s election ticket in the general election in August.

Most of the recalled parliamentarians belonged to Chamisa’s camp, and were barred from running in the by-elections.

Saturday’s by-elections are the first of a series between now and February, all occasioned by Tshabangu’s recalls.

He has, however, now been interdicted by the courts from making more recalls.

New Ziana