The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has distanced itself from the leakage of voters’ data.
Voters in various districts have begun receiving messages praising the government’s work and signed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The texts were personalised to include the name of the recipients’ district — and signed “President ED Mnangagwa”. One of the messages reads:
Kwaziwai. Iyi ndiyo WhatsApp nhamba yangu yeSeke 0719******, ichengetedzei mufoni menyu nekuzivisa vamwe vagari vemaSeke. Ndichange ndichikuzivisai paWhatsApp STATUS yangu, zvirikuitwa nehurumende kuvaka nyika yedu nemuno maSeke. Ndatenda, ndini wenyu President ED Mnangagwa.
ZEC’s deputy chairman Rodney Simukai Kiwa told AFP that she was “shocked” by learning of the SMSs. He said:
We have not given anything to anyone. We do not even know what to say.
Meanwhile, pressure group Team Pachedu has accused ZEC of passing voters’ data to ZANU-PF in breach of privacy and electoral rules.
Team Pachedu on Tuesday said they will take legal action after voters’ phone numbers were apparently leaked presumably by ZEC. Said Team Pachedu:
The messages being sent are not to ZANU-PF members, but to constituency voters including those in the opposition who never supplied their personal details to ZANU-PF.
(We) are looking forward to taking legal action against ZEC.
Zimbabwe is set to hold general elections later this year but no date has been set yet for the polls.
More: Pindula News