MDC’s parallel vote counting failed in 2008

The announcement by Movement for Democratic Change secretary-general Tendai Biti that the party will announce its own election results has once again raised questions about whether it has improved its vote-counting machinery.

The system flopped in 2008 according to cables released by the United States embassy.

Two parallel voting systems were simultaneously being carried out in the 2008 elections, one by the Zimbabwe Election Supervisory Network which was funded by the United States government through the National Democratic Institute, and the other by the MDC and funded by Econet boss, Strive Masiyiwa.

Although Biti announced that party leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won the presidential elections, the parallel count by the ZESN said he had won only 49 percent of the vote.

The MDC’s American advisor Kathi Walters said the party’s parallel count had failed because they had only captured 80 percent of the votes.

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