President Mnangagwa extends voting to Thursday

Harare (New Ziana) – President Emmerson Mnangagwa has proclaimed an extension of Wednesday’s one-day voting in the country’s general elections to Thursday in areas that experienced logistical glitches, and did not vote.

The country was voting on Wednesday in general elections to choose a new president, and parliamentary and local government representatives to run state affairs for the next five years.

But the vote experienced serious logistical glitches in a few areas involving unavailability of ballot papers, resulting in no voting taking place.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which runs national elections, attributed the problem to legal challenges filed in the courts by political parties and candidates over the election in the run-up to Wednesday’s poll, which caused delays in printing and distribution of ballot papers for areas in dispute.

As a result, ballot papers were not printed and delivered on time for the vote in these areas after the courts had settled the cases.

In some of the affected areas, voting was delayed on Wednesday, and ZEC said it would extend it until the 12 hour stipulated voting time had been met.

But in others, no voting took place at all because ballot papers, and other election materials had not been delivered on time for the vote.

President Mnangagwa’s proclamation only covers areas where no voting took place, and is meant to allow the electorate in these constituencies to also exercise their electoral rights.

Although ZEC was unavailable to give the number of areas where there was no voting, officials said privately that these were very few.

The logistical glitches involving ballot papers were mainly experienced in the capital, Harare and the second city of Bulawayo, but in most of the areas the challenges were addressed as the day progressed.

By law, a national voting day becomes a public holiday, which then extends Wednesday’s work-break, to allow people to vote, to Thursday – by default in most areas of the country.

The extension of the vote will take the steam off the opposition, which had already started to prepare grounds to dispute the outcome of the vote, based on lack of voting in some areas.

In areas unaffected by the glitches, voting closed at 7pm on Wednesday, and vote counting immediately began.

Over six million people had registered to vote in the elections, considered the least acrimonious in the country for years.

Incumbent President Mnangagwa, who is vying for a second term, is considered the front runner in a pack of ten presidential aspirants.

New Ziana