Protests Were Not Only Physical, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Site Was Also Hacked Earlier Today

Well, that was quick. It seems whilst protests were taking place in the CBD of Harare earlier today, there was also some protest online. The website of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was hacked and picture acknowledging the protests today was placed front and centre where the Commission used to host their own content. The message read:

The people of Zimbabwe Will Never Forget August 1 2018

This is the image of ZECs site at the time of the hack:

Unfortunately, we are not sure when the site was hacked but it seems ZEC could not regain control as they have now suspended the website and it’s now showing a different message entirely:

One of the developers at the Techzim team believes that the website might have actually been suspended by the hosting provider as a security measure:

It could be that the hosting provider suspended their account because they (the host) believe that the ZEC website is indeed hacked or compromised, so for safety they suspend ZECs account.

It is also not clear who is actually responsible for the hack as there does not seem to be anyone actually claiming responsibility for the hack. On twitter some have taken the hack to be equal to manipulation;

Registered voters are 5.6 mil yet a total of 8.1 mil votes have been counted and annonced by ZEC. Only 75% of registered voters voted. Ridiculous rigging by junta & their website is gone. What witchcraft is this @Wamagaisa @DavidColtart @EdmundKudzayi @nelsonchamisa @ProfJNMoyo pic.twitter.com/FDsEnQGOiP

— Citizen Dhehwa🇿🇼 (@tinomabwe) August 1, 2018

Interesting times…