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ELECTIONS LATEST: Government sets extra day of voting in selected wards after delays
By Agencies & Staff Reporter
HARARE: Zimbabwe has extended voting in selected wards by a day after the late distribution of ballot papers delayed polling, according to a presidential decree issued late Wednesday.
Voters waited for hours to vote on Wednesday, saying they were hungry for change from economic chaos, but analysts were sceptical that the ruling ZANU-PF party would allow a credible election or any loosening of its stranglehold on power.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa extended voting through a statutory instrument issued Wednesday evening.
Under the extension, voting will continue Thursday from 7am to 7pm in parts of Harare and Manicaland which experienced delays in the supply of ballot papers.
The extension will, however, not affect announcement of presidential election results, which has to be done within five days.
Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said told public media that he approached Mnangagwa after being advised challenges experienced in some areas by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
“Fidelity Printers had said they will not be able to finish printing (ballot papers) earlier than 9pm, so when I spoke to ZEC, they requested me to speak to His Excellency to say ‘can he exercise his powers to issue that Statutory Instrument so that the rights of those affected citizens are realised and they vote’. We then had to draft that Statutory Instrument,” Ziyambi told The Herald.
“The announcement will still be within five days for the Presidential results and for the other ones, they will be announced as voting is completed and they start counting.”