Special voting attracts thousands

Chronicle Reporters
Special voting for this year’s harmonised elections started late yesterday at most polling stations in the country following delays in dispatching ballot papers. The voting, which ends today is, caters for the security services and other officers who would be on duty during the 31 July harmonised elections.
In Bulawayo Province where there are four polling stations for the special voting which are Nketa Primary and Emakhandeni Secondary School, Magwegwe and Large City Hall, voting started at after midday.

When a Chronicle news team visited the polling stations, the turnout was overwhelming at the Large City Hall while other polling stations had fair crowds.

At Magwegwe Hall and Nketa Primary School, most voters were turned away after their names were not available on the voters’ roll.
At Emakhandeni Secondary School, voters bemoaned the fact that the voting process was progressing at a slow pace with only about five people having voted by around 3pm.

In an interview Bulawayo provincial election officer, Mr Innocent Ncube, said the voting process started at 12 noon at all polling stations and would end after 12 hours as stipulated by law.

“We received ballot papers from Harare at the Command Centre at around 10am and they were distributed to the district offices at 11am and by 12 noon all the polling stations had received them. The duration of voting will therefore be adjusted to 12 midnight to accommodate all the voters,” said Mr Ncube.

He said the ballot papers were inadequate for all voters and they were expecting another consignment in the afternoon.
“The ballot papers are not enough and we are expecting to receive another batch in the afternoon or evening. At  Magwegwe polling station, it is worse as we received only seven envelopes out of 300 prospective voters who were authorised to vote,” said Mr Ncube.

In Gwanda Town, voting started at around 3.15pm at the Zintec Old Site polling station despite some voters having arrived as early as 7am.
In the morning, a number of voters were seen roaming around the polling stations.

Some voters said they had waited patiently from morning until the delivery of the ballot papers in the afternoon to cast their votes while the impatient ones left.

When ballot papers were delivered at the Zintec polling station at around 3pm, there were less than 10 people who were still waiting to cast their votes.

In Gwanda District, some voters cast their votes at Manama while others were in Selonga.
The Matabeleland South provincial elections officer Mr Jotham Nyathi said the delays were a result of some logistical problems.

He said distribution of the ballot papers to be delivered to different districts in the province was done in Bulawayo at around 1pm.
“As soon as we received our consignment, we immediately distributed the ballot papers to our districts. Tomorrow (today) we expect voting to start at 7am until 7pm unless we are advised by our head office to extend the exercise beyond that time,” said Mr Nyathi.

He said despite the delays in the delivery of the ballot papers, the voting exercise was conducted smoothly and peacefully and there were no other challenges faced.

The special voting process for Mangwe and Bulilima constituencies started at 4pm as the ballot papers were also delivered late to the voting centres.

In Mangwe Constituency at Allern Redfern Primary School in Plumtree, a number of voters waited impatiently until around 5pm to cast their votes.

The District’s Special Presiding Officer at the station, Mr Dumisani Ncube, said the station had only received ballot papers for the National Assembly and Presidential candidates.

“People started voting at 4pm but there are still a number of anomalies up to now. We have 194 people on our voters roll but we have only received 36 ballot papers.

“The ballot papers for councillors are not yet in and as of now, people are only voting for the National Assembly and Presidential candidates,” he said.

Other polling centres included Madlambuzi Secondary School in Bulilima West, Bhulu Secondary in Mangwe and Ntunungwe and Nyole in Bulilima East.

In the Midlands, scores of police officers who intended to vote were yesterday turned away after their names were not included on the list of those who successfully applied to participate in the special voting.

A number of them whose names were on the list of  those  who successfully applied  for the special voting were also turned away after their names could not be found on the voters’ roll.

At the Gweru District Administrator’s office, one of the polling stations, long winding queues of uniformed police officers who intended to cast their vote had formed by 9am.

The actual voting exercise started at about 12.30pm when scores of voters discovered that their names were either not on the voters’ roll or not included on the special voting list.

“It’s so frustrating, I have been here since morning only to be told that my name was not on the list of those who successfully applied to be included in the special voting.

“The majority of us are not eligible to vote and we just hope by tomorrow (today) our names would have been sent from our headquarters to confirm that we have applied for this exercise,” said one of the police officers.

Another police officer said she received confirmation forms after she applied to vote but was disappointed when her name could not be found on the voters’ roll.

In Shurugwi, voting started at around 1.30pm with officials citing the delay in receiving ballot papers as the reason why the process started late.
The names of those who voted in the exercise would be crossed out of the ward based voters’ roll.

The ballots will be transported from polling stations to the chief elections officer and thereafter to the ward in tamper-proof envelopes that would be sealed in the presence of party election agents who are entitled to sign on the seal.

All political parties’ representatives are entitled to be present when the tamper-proof envelopes are opened.
New Ziana reports that voting commenced at a slow pace at most centres across the country.

ZEC Commissioner Bessie Nhandara said special votes also know as the early vote were being cast at 209 polling stations across the country.
“We have established 209 polling stations countrywide where special voting will take place,” she said.

Visits to some polling stations in Harare revealed that they had opened as scheduled at 7am.
Large numbers of voters, who were mainly police officers, could be seen waiting patiently to cast their vote.