The legal framework must be reviewed to ensure a more transparent results transmission system where presidential results from each polling station are transmitted directly to the national results collation centre. Any changes to the results should be made in the presence of observers and political party agents. ZEC should consider the total valid votes cast rather than the total votes cast in the counting of election votes and avoid errors that may necessitate the revision of announced results.
Further, ZEC must invest in a real time results transmission system. ZEC must pursue an open data policy that includes the prompt display of election result forms at polling stations for each polling station, disaggregated by demographic variables and post those forms on its website.
Assessment:
In the 2018 electoral cycle, the results management system was not altered significantly. Issues from previous electoral cycles remain, including those related transparency, accuracy and verifiability of results.
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