MDC Highlights Shifting Election Results

The problematic constituencies identified to date are located in the provinces of Manicaland, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East and Matabeleland South, where the MDC says there are serious and unaccountable discrepancies between the data recorded by election officers at close of play and the final tallies announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, ZEC, on April 1.

“This indicates massive electoral fraud by the ruling party,” said the MDC in a statement on April 9.

“Where the MDC was widely predicted to retain its seats, as in the two major cities of Harare and Bulawayo, very few discrepancies were identified,” said an MDC spokesman. “This raises further suspicions that there was a calculated plan to ensure that the MDC won a sufficient number of seats to sanction the electoral process as free and fair in the eyes of invited foreign observers. It cleverly gave the end result a veneer of legitimacy. While little attempt was made to deny the MDC victory in key urban areas, it is clear that all the stops were pulled out to ensure the MDC made few gains elsewhere.”

The MDC said that in 11 constituencies - Kariba, Manyame, Goromonzi, Murehwa South, Mutoko North, Seke Rural, Buhera South, Mutare South, Mutasa South, Mutasa North and Nyanga – wins by ZANU PF are directly attributable to discrepancies between the March 31 and April 1 tallies.

In most of these constituencies, the winning candidate was either a senior ZANU PF party official or a government minister.

The spokesman said the MDC had not yet been able to carry out an analysis of the vote count in constituencies in Mashonaland Central, Masvingo, Matabeleland North, Midlands North and Midlands South as the election body has failed to make the data public. “The ZEC’s refusal to release these figures indicates widespread irregularities,” he said.

The MDC spokesman said its preliminary information and all later findings will be widely distributed internationally. A handful of cases may be taken to Zimbabwean courts in order to make the complaints a matter of public record, but there is little hope these claims will be considered. Thirty objections raised in the 2000 parliamentary election have still not been processed by the courts.

Constituencies where discrepancies were noted:

1 Manyame: The ZEC announced the total votes cast as 14, 812 on March 31. The MDC candidate was ahead with 8,312 votes. However, when results were announced on April 1, the ZANU PF candidate was reported to have won with 15,448 votes. The total vote becomes 24,303 (543 ballots were spoilt) – an increase of 9,491 on the initial tally.

2 Goromonzi: The ZEC initially put the vote count at 15,611, giving the MDC more than half the total, with 8,578 votes. But in final results issued the next day, the ZANU PF candidate was declared the winner with 16,782 votes – over 1,000 more than the original total. The total votes cast for the two candidates plus spoilt ballots are now put at 26,123, a discrepancy of 10,512.

3 Kariba: The initial count of 16,676 puts the MDC candidate ahead with 9,540 votes. Final results make ZANU PF the winner with 13,171 votes. The total vote count is now 24,142, or 7,466 more than the first figure.

4 Seke Rural: The total vote rose to 24,873 from an initial 11,344, an increase of a discrepancy is 13,529. The MDC’s initial win with 8,843 votes is transformed into a ZANU PF victory – the latter now has 15,434 votes, or 4,090 more votes than the initial figure for all votes.

5 Mutare South: With a total count of 14,054, the MDC is well ahead with 12,163 votes. But the final result gives ZANU PF a winning 16,412 of the new total, 28,575, a total that shows a discrepancy of 14,521.

6 Buhera South: The MDC candidate is initially awarded victory with 13,893 of a total 25,447 votes recorded. The revised results show ZANU PF winning with 15,066 votes. The total vote figure of 28,959 ballots represents a rise of 3,512.

7 Marondera East: An initial vote tally of 25,193 rises by 4,742 to reach 29,935. ZANU PF now has 19,192 votes as against 10,066 scored by the MDC.

8 Buhera North: Early tally of 16,795 goes up to 22,688, a discrepancy of 5,893. The increased total leaves the ZANU PF candidate with 17,677 votes compared with 4,137 for his MDC rival.

9 Murehwa South: The first ZEC total of 8,579 shoots up to 24,463 in the final data, a discrepancy of 15,207. The MDC’s 4,586 gave it a majority of the initial total, but the final count left ZANU PF the victor with 19,200.

10 Mutasa South: Out of the initially recorded 15,733 votes, the MDC got 9,380, more than half. Once the final results came out, the ZANU PF candidate was shown to have 9,715 votes. The total vote count, including spoilt ballots, amounts to 19,573, leaving 3,840 votes unaccounted for.

11 Mutasa North: The total ZEC figure for votes cast is 10,986. The MDC candidate polled 6,605 votes, more than half. But final results show the ZANU PF with 10,135. The total vote is now 17,204, leaving 6,218 votes unaccounted for.

12 Nyanga: The ZEC’s total is 13,896, of which the MDC candidate gets 9,360 votes. Revised results allot 12,612 to ZANU PF’s candidate. The total count, including spoilt ballots, is 22,739, or an additional 8,843 votes.

13 Chimanimani: The total ZEC figure for votes cast is 23,896. The MDC candidate received 11,031. When results were officially announced, ZANU PF was shown with 15,817 votes. The total count, including spoilt ballots, is put at 27,642, so 3,746 votes are unaccounted for.

14 Makoni North: The total votes cast here came to 14,068. However, at 24,987 the revised figure shows a discrepancy of 10,919 votes. The ZANU PF candidate has now won with 18,910, while the MDC gets 6,077.

15 Chipinge North: The ZEC first comes out with a vote count of 23,896. When results are finally issued, the ZANU PF candidate is announced the winner, with 16,047 votes against 10,920 for his MDC counterpart. The total vote count for the constituency now stands at 27,576, a discrepancy of 3,625.

16 Chipinge South: The ZEC total of 29,479 is revised upwards by 1,225 to 30,704. On April 1, ZANU PF is declared the winner, with 16,412 votes compared with 12,163 for the MDC and 2,129 for ZANU Ndonga.

17 Makoni East: The initial result of 20,454 for the total vote rises to 17,341, leaving a balance of 3,113 votes unaccounted for.

18 Beitbridge: The ZEC said 36,821 had voted but the totals for the candidates only add up to 20,602, leaving an unexplained gap of 16,219.

19 Hwedza: After announcing that 23,698 people had voted, the ZEC came out with a new total of 26,736, a difference of 3,038 votes.

20 Mutare West: The ZEC announced that 18,584 people had voted but the total for all candidates plus spoilt ballots comes to 20,950, in other words 2,366 more than the total.

21 Chegutu: The ZEC said 19,763 people voted yet the totals for candidates and spoilt ballots amount to 25,374, so that 5,611 extra votes have appeared.

22 Chikomba: According to the ZEC , the total count was 18,401 but the final tally is put 7, 649 higher at 26,050.

23 Hurungwe East: The total for two candidates is 26,552, or 4,019 votes more than the vote count given as 22,533.

24 Mudzi East: The vote count of 12,499 is 9,921 short of the votes given for all candidates, 22 420.

25 Mudzi West: The total of 10,998 people more than doubles to 22,796 when the final votes for all candidates are announced.

26 Murehwa North: There is a gap of 4, 747 between the initial count of 17,606 and the final tally of 22,353. ZANU PF gets 17,677, while the MDC scores 4,137.

27 Mutoko North: An initial voting figure of 10,721 is at odds with the final total of 20,652. The gap is 9,931. ZANU PF wins with 16,257 votes.

28 Mutoko South: ZANU PF wins with 19,390 out of a final total of 23,481. The latter figure is 7,618 higher than the initial count, recorded as 15,863.

29 Insiza: The initial total of 20,220 people is revised by 1,879 to 22,099. The final results give ZANU PF 13,109 ballots and the MDC 8,840.

30 Gwanda: While the ZEC initially said 23,288 people voted, the new total rises by 1,300 to 24,594. The winning ZANU PF candidate has 13,109 in the revised results, while the MDC has 10,961.