Election results will be electronically transmitted countrywide to undo claims of vote tampering, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has said. Acting ZEC chairperson Mrs Joyce Kazembe said the commission was installing software linking the national command centre with all district offices nationwide to enable ZEC to electronically transmit election results without fear of people tampering with the outcome.
In an interview on the sidelines of a two-day media training workshop on election reporting in Kadoma on Wednesday, Mrs Kazembe said the software would be in place by January next year.
“We are currently putting in place software that will be used to transmit the election results and we hope the cable linking all the districts with the command centre (in Harare) will be in place by January,” she said.
Mrs Kazembe said the exercise was an expensive, but expressed optimism that it would be ready by March next year when the country is expected to vote in harmonised elections.
“In our budget we presented to the UNDP, we indicated that the laying of the cable linking the districts with the command centre will cost about US$20 million.
“A consultant has done a study and I will soon be receiving the documents. What I know right now is we have reached a stage of buying the equipment including computers and other accessories needed, of course after going through a tender process,” she said.
During harmonised elections held in March 2008, some ZEC officials were accused of posting wrong figures leading to the contestation of the outcome.
Full Article: allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Goes Digital.