Africa-Press – Zambia. Today’s bonus day of voting has nearly drawn to a close, with ballot boxes being shut at nearly all 12,374 polling stations nationwide. Reports indicate that Kambuzuma High in Harare was one of the last station to close, with votes still being cast at 21:50 this evening.
As counting gets well underway, preliminary parliamentary results are looking promising for the CCC. The opposition party is currently leading ZANU-PF by eight seats to three. The CCC is also performing well in rural ZANU heartlands, including Matebeleland North.
Meanwhile, results forms continue to flow into the official CCC PVT operation system and will increase in volume as counting and reporting continues throughout the night. Our team is working diligently to submit and process the data, and is on track to deliver a timely, accurate, and auditable result. We will continue to send updates over the course of tomorrow.
The European Union’s Chief Observer Fabio Castaldo is due to present his mission’s statement on Zimbabwe’s elections at 14:00 tomorrow before the mission concludes. An 11-person core team has been in Zimbabwe since July and a total of 101 observers were present on election day.
The mission has yet to deliver any official statement, although Mr Castaldo criticised the late opening of roughly 30% of polling stations on Wednesday.
The African Union – which has 73 short term observers in Zimbabwe led by former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan – is also due to deliver its official statement tomorrow. However, there has been no confirmation of this address recently.
Media reports have already documented the widespread delays to voting on Wednesday, with polling stations in CCC heartlands such as Harare particularly badly affected. Voters were also regularly intimidated by so-called ZANU ‘exit poll’ desks outside polling stations and the shadowy Forever Associates of Zimbabwe (FAZ).
The joint AU-COMESA mission’s own directive states that its assessment will be based on the election’s “regularity, transparency, equity, and fair conduct”. The mission should therefore find it hard to do anything but condemn the ZEC for its shambolic and sinister conduct.
CROCODILE TEARS
On a final note, election day can be exhausting for everyone but it appears none more so than Emmerson Mnangagwa, who this afternoon congratulated President Zelensky and the people of Ukraine on their independence day.
This strikes a somewhat different tone than when the President met with Russian President Vladimir Putin only last month. There the Crocodile openly declared his support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, before taking receipt of a presidential helicopter and 50,000 tonnes of grain.
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