The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) made a last-minute search for presiding officers and polling officers after several school heads and other civil servants snubbed the exercise. A source close to the matter said Harare is the most affected.
According to a source that spoke on condition of anonymity out of 156 presiding officers needed for Harare Metropolitan, only 43 heeded the call.
The posts of presiding officers were first extended to school heads, deputy heads, and department heads from various government departments, but ZEC was left with no choice after most of them turned down the offer citing various reasons for their unavailability.
ZEC had no choice but to extend the call to junior officers. This also applied to polling officers and ZEC had to make frantic phone calls to those who were willing to take up the offer.
However, several people said those snubbing the call are predicting a landslide victory for the opposition akin to the 2008 election where police arrested more than 100 presiding officers on allegations of fraud.
ZEC Chief Elections Officer Utoile Silaigwana referred all the questions to the information department. “All the questions have to come through the information department. You can send your questions to them,” he said. Masvingo Mirror
