Staff Reporter

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has castigated the independent daily newspaper Newsday for discarding the tenets of journalism in a desperate attempt to soil the good image of that organisation and the ruling ZANU PF party.

This followed a malicious and false report carried by the Newsday edition of 6 April 2022 claiming that ZEC issued a voters’ roll with colour pictures to ZANU PF candidates, while denying the same to the opposition.

 In a statement, ZEC’s Chief Elections Officer, Mr Utoile Silaigwana, said the false report was malicious and an attempt to distract ZEC from its constitutional mandate.

“The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) wishes to deny the allegations reported in the Newsday newspaper of 6 April 2022 to the effect that it issued a voters’ roll with colour pictures to ZANU PF candidates, while denying the same to the opposition.

“The allegations are outright malicious and again an attempt to distract the Commission from its constitutional mandate. Since the ruling in the Mpezeni case wherein the High Court upheld the contention that the Commission could not be compelled to issue a voters’ roll with photographs to political parties or any member of the public, no voters’ roll with photographs has been issued to any stakeholder,” said Silaigwana.

Silaigwana added that ZEC does not discriminate against any of its stakeholders on the issuance of voters’ rolls and challenged all stakeholders to prove otherwise.

The ZEC commissioner urged all stakeholders to verify their facts before publishing inaccurate and misleading information. He added that that ZEC was committed to discharging its constitutional mandate without fear or favour.

On many occasions, the Newsday has been accused of publishing unverified stories and most of these stories negatively portray the Government and its institutions.