CLAIM: It is illegal to announce election results before they are announced by ZEC
SOURCE: Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
VERDICT: Missing context
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commision has said it is illegal to announce the election results before they are announced by the electoral body. See here.
This claim has been rated as partly true.
According to the law, not all forms of announcements not done by ZEC are illegal.
The Electoral Act of Zimbabwe criminalises the announcement of election results as ‘true’ or ‘official’ or ‘declaring a winner’ before ZEC announces.
This means that, one can announce results with a disclaimer that they are not official and it would not be considered as criminal.
The Electoral Act
Section 66A of the Act says:
66A. Unofficial or false declaration of results prohibited (1) Subject to subsection (3), any person who—
(a) purports to announce the result of an election as the true or official results; or
(b) purports to declare any candidate to have been duly elected; before an electoral officer, acting in accordance with this Act, has announced the result of that election or declared a candidate to have been duly elected in that election, as the case may be, shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level five or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.
(2) Subject to subsection (4), any person who, with intent to deceive or to discredit the electoral processes in an election, falsely—
(a) reports or announces the number of votes received by a candidate or political party in an election; or
(b) declares any candidate to have been elected in an election; shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level six or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or to both such fine and such imprisonment.
What does this mean?
According to this provision, if someone announces election results without claiming them to be ‘true’ or ‘official’, and does not declare any candidate as duly elected, they would not be considered as committing an offence.
Furthermore, the Act goes on to say:
“(3) Subsection (1) shall not be construed as preventing any person from reporting the number of votes received by a candidate or political party in an election, where the report is based on polling station returns and constituency returns from the election concerned.
(4) Subsection (2) shall not be construed as preventing any person from making any allegation regarding the result or conduct of an election in or for the purposes an election petition.”
Hence, as long as there is no intention to deceive and the announced results are presented as preliminary, there should be no offence. In this regard, it is safe to say the provision seeks to guard against misinformation and disinformation.
According to the provision, it is not illegal to carry out a parallel tabulation. ZEC Chairperson, Priscilla Chigumba also confirms it here.
Conclusion
It is not illegal to tally votes and publish the results as long as you do not declare your findings as official.
