POLICE ISSUE STRONG WARNING

Tanaka Mahanya

NATIONAL police spokesman, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi, has warned individuals and civic organisations to only conduct lawful activities as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) finalises its voting and ballot counting process.

Ass-Comm Nyathi said police were disturbed by subversive and criminal activities by certain individuals and civic organisations.

They were using equipment confiscated by a police crack team from the Holiday Inn Hotel in Harare, as well as houses in Belgravia, Milton Park Harare and The Grange.

The equipment was used to unlawfully tabulate election voting statistics and results from polling stations throughout the country.

“Police are disturbed by subversive and criminal activities by certain individuals and civic organisations such as Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Election Resource Centre and Team Pachedu, in relation to the ongoing electoral process in the country,” said Ass-Comm Nyathi.

“This follows a tip-off received and subsequent raid by a police crack team.

“As a result, a total of 93 smart cellphones, 38 laptops, two smart watches, two modems, one Wi-Fi router, one external hard drive, Nokia feature phone, one printer, 1 X 24 port switch, various computer chargers, power back-up unit and headphones were recovered.

 “These figures were being supplied by some observers and political party agents.

“The coordinators of the information were stationed at Holiday Inn, Harare and were in the process of feeding information to a location in The Grange, Harare, where the Presidential election results were to be announced using the VPN System.”

He added:

“Any criminal acts aimed at causing alarm and despondence among Zimbabweans will be severely dealt with in terms of the country’s laws.

“We commend Zimbabweans for the exemplary conduct and peaceful environment which characterised the pre-election and the election period.

“This should continue during the post-election period. Police will continue to maintain law and order in the country through patrols, blitz and general traffic enforcements.”