Zimbabwean political analyst Dr. Pedzisai Ruhanya has castigated the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission {ZEC} work ethics, praising the French electoral body on the just-ended presidential elections in France.
Posting on his Twitter handle, Ruhanya described ZEC as incompetent and congratulated the French electoral body for the timeous announcement of presidential results by the media.
“French people voted. Voting closed at 2000hrs and before 2100hrs the results are known and Marine Le Pen concedes defeat to Macron. The official results are not yet announced but the media has done. Not the rubbish by ZEC of monopolizing the release of results in order to cook them,” he said.
But addressing journalists at a ZEC workshop held in Harare last Friday ZEC Director of Legal Services, Mrs. Shamiso Chahuruva educated journalists on the number of days constitutionally required for ZEC to announce the presidential results.
She urged journalists to desist from announcing fake results during the election period.
“People think presidential results should be announced in just 2 hours. The constitution says the results should be announced no later than 5days so if ZEC doesn’t surpass 5 days in the announcement of elections there is no need for the public to say ZEC has delayed the announcement.
“The media have a degree to safeguard the credibility of the elections processes. It’s an offense for the media to publish the elections that have not yet been published by ZEC,” she said.
Ruhanya and ZEC comments on presidential results came as Zimbabwe braces for general elections next year.
