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Masvingo Correspondent
It is illegal and inflammatory for people to abuse social media platforms by announcing purported results of the 2018 harmonised elections, as the job is strictly reserved for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) by the Constitution, a senior official in the electoral governing body has said.

The development comes as some overzealous social media users here started circulating messages announcing unofficial results of polls from various parts of the country.

Acting ZEC Chief Elections Officer Mr Utoile Silaigwana yesterday took a swipe at the social media abusers in the city who by 8.30am had started circulating WhatsApp messages on candidates purported to be leading in the elections.

The social media here was awash with reports that the MDC-Alliance was leading in votes even in some known Zanu-PF strongholds in major towns and cities around the country, including the country’s oldest town.
The preliminary so-called results were not attributed to official election sources.

“The biggest challenge is that we have no standing regulations to control social media operations,” said Mr Silaigwana.
“But then, it is illegal for candidates, their supporters or agents to proclaim results verbally or in print before they are declared or announced by the elections officer.”

Mr Silaigwana said publication of preliminary election results by individuals representing their own political interests was in contravention of the Section 66(a) and (b) of the Electoral Act.

The Act stipulates that it is illegal for any person to announce election results as official or to declare any candidate duly elected before the election officer announces so.

“The law says such persons shall be guilty of an offence warranting a jail term of not exceeding six months,” said Mr Silaigwana.

“The announcement of false results or results by unofficial sources has the capacity to raise unnecessary political emotions on the part of losers.

“The situation in the country is like the social media is slowly usurping the duties of the mainstream media and ZEC’s autonomy. As ZEC, we encourage the public to ignore results from all social media platforms, be it Twitter, Facebook or Whatsapp.

“It is only ZEC which has the mandate to release election results. Any other person regardless of their political, social or economic clout has no authority in terms of the law to release national election results.”