Published: 11 July 2018

The rift between the Zec and the country's opposition parties taking part in the forthcoming polls has widened in the wake of the short message service saga that erupted on Monday.

This comes after Zanu-PF mandarins took their electoral campaign several gears up by sending bulk text messages to registered voters in a bid to solicit for their votes ahead of the elections.

Stakeholders in the harmonised elections have accused Zec of granting Zanu-PF access to the Biometric Voters Roll (BVR) database where the ruling party accessed registered voters' contact details before sending them text messages soliciting for votes.

MDC Alliance principal, Tendai Biti, described the issue as a “the boob of the century” by Zec.

Zec, however, yesterday claimed its hands were clean and promised toprobe the matter.

Zec chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba denied releasing voters' phone numbers to political parties.

Another Zec commissioner, Qhubani Moyo, accused mobile phone operators of receiving money to share the data.

Chigumba who previously said the "USSD code" used to confirm registration was secure and was not given to service providers, however, said they shared that information with the three mobile network service providers in the country.

Econet has however distanced itself from the matter.
- Dailynews

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