Run-off elections conducted peacefully

Chronicle Reporter
THE ward run-off election was conducted peacefully in Lupane yesterday where about 2 000 people from Ward Five of Kusile Rural District Council voted.Cde Soneni Tshuma of Zanu-PF and Mr Ubunene Ncube of MDC-T who polled 419 votes each in the 31 July election contested the election.

In a telephone interview from the command centre in Lupane yesterday evening, Matabeleland North provincial elections officer Mr Mark Ndlovu said all the four polling stations, Esibombo, Msewele, Kana and Sinqobile Primary Schools were opened at 7am and closed at 7pm.

“The voting process went on very well and peacefully. There was no violence or intimidation. We opened all the four polling stations at 7 am. The turn up was encouraging and the busiest polling station was Kana Primary where we experienced the longest queues,” said Mr Ndlovu.

“We have just closed the polling stations at 7pm and as we speak they are doing the counting. We will then collect the ballot boxes tomorrow (today) at the ward command centre at Esibombo. Results will be announced tomorrow.”

Mr Ndlovu could not immediately give the actual number of people who voted but said some unregistered voters were turned away at one of the polling stations.

“I cannot give you full details on how many people voted now but I can safely tell you that we have turned away many voters who wanted to vote without being registered.

“We are also having communication challenges because the polling stations are far away from the command centre and we have been using vehicles and police radios to try and get feedback from all the polling stations,” he said.

Mr Ndlovu said one of the officers from the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), who failed to accredit as a local observer on time was caught trying to cast his vote at one of the polling stations despite the fact that he was not registered.

He, however, said he was yet to get full details of the official. The run-off elections were also conducted in Ward Four in Kadoma Municipality and Ward 30 in Mutasa Rural District Council. Contesting candidates in the three wards received an equal number of votes in the 31 July elections.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) had printed 9 300 ballot papers for the exercise in the three wards.
The tender for the printing of the ballot papers was awarded to a Harare based company, Printflow Private Limited.

Kadoma Municipality was allocated 3 000 ballot papers, 2 900 for Kusile RDC while Mutasa RDC got 3 400.