By Kelvin Wilson Kasiwulaya
The State has withdrawn charges against 39 staff members of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and the Elections Resource Centre (ERC) who were arrested on August 23, 2023, for allegedly violating provisions of the Electoral Act.
In a statement issued on Thursday, May 30, ZESN announced that the charges had been dropped due to a lack of evidence. The organization stated, “The charges against ZESN and ERC staff and volunteers who were arrested on August 23, 2023, for purportedly attempting to announce the results of the 2023 Harmonised General elections have been withdrawn due to lack of evidence.”
The arrests had taken place following a tip-off to the Zimbabwe Republic Police, who claimed that the ZESN and ERC workers were disrupting the electoral process by setting up bases and gathering equipment to unlawfully tabulate voting statistics and transmit results to a foreign country.
The police statement from 25 August 2023 alleged that the arrested individuals, including those from Team Pachedu, were using a VPN system dubbed “Apollo” to announce Presidential Election results ahead of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
Despite the initial allegations, the charges against the ZESN and ERC staff have now been dropped.