1. Introduction
These Terms of Use govern access to and use of PVT Results, an election monitoring, polling-station result capture, evidence upload, verification, and vote tallying platform.
By creating an account, accessing a workspace, submitting polling station results, uploading evidence, verifying submissions, viewing reports, or otherwise using the platform, you agree to these Terms.
If you are using the platform on behalf of an organisation, political party, candidate, civil society organisation, observer group, media organisation, or other entity, you represent that you have authority to bind that organisation to these Terms.
2. Purpose of the Platform
PVT Results is designed to help authorised organisations collect, review, validate, and analyse polling station result information using evidence-backed submissions.
The platform is intended to support:
- collection of publicly declared polling station results;
- upload of supporting evidence, including polling station result forms or images of publicly posted results;
- internal review and verification by authorised tenant users;
- arithmetic and consistency checks;
- identification of discrepancies across submissions;
- generation of internal parallel tabulation, monitoring, and analytical reports.
PVT Results is not an official electoral authority, does not conduct elections, and does not declare official or final election results.
3. ECZ Authority and Official Results Disclaimer
Users acknowledge that the Electoral Commission of Zambia, or any other legally mandated electoral authority applicable to the relevant election, is the official body responsible for administering elections and declaring or publishing official results according to law.
PVT Results does not replace, override, amend, certify, or supersede results declared by the Electoral Commission of Zambia.
Any tally, dashboard, report, projection, discrepancy alert, internal analysis, or aggregate result generated by PVT Results is provided for monitoring, verification, audit, and organisational decision-support purposes only.
Users must not represent any platform-generated result as an official, final, legally binding, or ECZ-declared result unless it has been officially declared by the legally mandated electoral authority.
4. Source of Results to Be Submitted
Users must only submit election results that are derived from the publicly available polling station record declared at the polling station.
For purposes of these Terms, an acceptable source includes:
- the polling station result as announced by the Presiding Officer or authorised election official;
- the polling station result form signed or made available in accordance with applicable electoral procedures;
- the copy of the polling station result form posted outside the polling station for public viewing;
- a copy lawfully obtained by an accredited agent, monitor, observer, candidate representative, or other authorised person;
- any other source expressly approved by the platform operator and consistent with applicable electoral law and ECZ procedures.
Users must not submit results based on rumours, estimates, unverified social media posts, partisan projections, unofficial hearsay, altered documents, manipulated images, or private communications that are not supported by the polling station public record or lawful evidence.
5. Evidence Requirement
Every result submission must be supported by evidence where the platform requires it.
Evidence may include:
- a clear photograph or scan of the polling station result form;
- a clear photograph of the result form posted outside the polling station;
- a copy of the signed result form lawfully obtained by an authorised agent or observer;
- metadata or notes requested by the platform to support auditability;
- any additional verification information required by the tenant administrator or platform operator.
Users must ensure that uploaded evidence is accurate, complete, legible, and not altered in a way that misrepresents the original record.
Image enhancement for readability may be allowed only where it does not change, obscure, fabricate, or distort the content of the original result record.
6. Accuracy and Good-Faith Submission Obligations
Each user submitting data must:
- enter results exactly as they appear on the publicly declared polling station record;
- upload the correct evidence for the correct polling station, stream, ward, constituency, district, province, contest, and candidate;
- avoid transposition, inflation, omission, duplication, or substitution of figures;
- promptly correct any mistake discovered after submission;
- report suspected manipulation, fraud, coercion, or data-entry compromise;
- comply with all lawful instructions issued by their tenant administrator, verifier, or the platform operator;
- use the platform in good faith and only for lawful election monitoring, verification, and tabulation purposes.
Submission of knowingly false, manipulated, fabricated, misleading, or unsupported results is a material breach of these Terms.
7. Tenant Verification Before Wider Release
Each organisation using PVT Results is responsible for validating data submitted by its agents before releasing, publishing, circulating, or relying on that data across the entire organisation or to any external audience.
Each tenant must establish an internal verification workflow appropriate to its operations, including, where applicable:
- agent submission review;
- evidence review;
- verifier approval;
- discrepancy resolution;
- supervisory sign-off;
- audit-log review;
- approval before organisation-wide visibility or external reporting.
The platform may provide tools for review, verification, flags, audit trails, arithmetic checks, and role-based access. However, the tenant remains responsible for determining whether its submitted data is sufficiently verified for internal or external use.
8. Prohibited Conduct
Users must not:
- upload false, fabricated, altered, or misleading election results;
- intentionally enter results that differ from the publicly declared polling station record;
- impersonate an agent, observer, verifier, ECZ official, candidate, party representative, or any other person;
- interfere with or bypass platform validation, audit, or access-control mechanisms;
- upload malicious code, spam, or unauthorised automated traffic;
- attempt to access another organisation’s workspace or data without authorisation;
- use another user’s login credentials;
- share credentials with unauthorised persons;
- use the platform to incite violence, intimidation, harassment, or unlawful conduct;
- falsely claim that PVT Results has officially declared an election result;
- use platform outputs to mislead the public about the status of official results;
- remove, obscure, or manipulate audit logs or evidence;
- submit personal data that is unnecessary for election monitoring;
- violate applicable electoral, data protection, cybersecurity, intellectual property, or criminal laws.
9. Discrepancies, Flags, and Corrections
PVT Results may automatically or manually flag submissions where:
- arithmetic does not balance;
- totals diverge from evidence;
- multiple tenants submit materially different results for the same polling station;
- evidence appears incomplete, illegible, duplicated, or inconsistent;
- the submission pattern suggests manipulation, coercion, or systematic error;
- the platform detects unusual access, editing, or submission behaviour.
A flag does not necessarily mean that fraud or manipulation has occurred. It is an indicator requiring review.
The platform operator may request clarification, additional evidence, or correction from the relevant user or tenant administrator.
Tenants must cooperate in good faith with discrepancy resolution.
10. Suspension and Termination
The platform operator may suspend, restrict, or terminate access to the platform where it reasonably believes that a user or tenant has:
- breached these Terms;
- submitted false or manipulated data;
- compromised platform security;
- misrepresented platform outputs as official results;
- failed to cooperate with discrepancy review;
- used the platform for unlawful or harmful activity;
- exposed the platform, other tenants, or the public to legal, security, or reputational risk.
Where appropriate, the platform operator may preserve relevant logs, evidence, and records for audit, legal, security, or dispute-resolution purposes.
11. Tenant Responsibilities
Each tenant is responsible for:
- selecting, training, and supervising its users;
- assigning appropriate roles to agents, verifiers, administrators, and readers;
- ensuring that users understand the requirement to submit only publicly declared polling station results;
- implementing internal verification and approval procedures;
- reviewing all evidence before relying on submitted data;
- complying with applicable laws and electoral procedures;
- ensuring that public communications based on platform data are accurate, qualified, and not misleading;
- maintaining the confidentiality of its account credentials and workspace access;
- promptly notifying the platform operator of suspected unauthorised access or misuse.
12. Platform Role and Limitations
PVT Results may provide:
- data-entry workflows;
- evidence upload;
- arithmetic validation;
- audit logs;
- verification workflows;
- role-based access;
- dashboards and analytics;
- discrepancy detection;
- pooled consistency checking across platform submissions, as described in the Data & Privacy Policy.
However, the platform does not guarantee that:
- all submitted data is accurate;
- all user-uploaded evidence is genuine;
- every discrepancy will be detected;
- the platform will be uninterrupted or error-free;
- unofficial tallies will match final official results;
- users or tenants will comply with their obligations.
13. Public Communications
Users and tenants must exercise care when communicating any platform-derived figures.
Any external publication or communication based on PVT Results data must clearly state, where applicable, that:
- the data is based on polling station submissions received by the tenant;
- the figures are unofficial unless and until declared by ECZ or the relevant official electoral authority;
- the figures may be subject to verification, correction, or dispute resolution;
- PVT Results is not the body responsible for declaring final election results.
14. Intellectual Property
The platform, including its software, design, workflows, dashboards, documentation, trademarks, and related materials, belongs to the platform operator or its licensors.
Tenants retain ownership of their uploaded data, subject to the rights granted to the platform operator under these Terms and the Data & Privacy Policy.
Users must not copy, reverse engineer, resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the platform except as permitted by a written agreement.
15. Data and Privacy
Use of the platform is also governed by the PVT Results Data & Privacy Policy.
By using the platform, users and tenants agree that the platform may process submitted data, evidence, account data, audit logs, and usage data as described in that policy.
In the event of a conflict between these Terms and the Data & Privacy Policy regarding personal data processing, the Data & Privacy Policy will apply to the extent of that conflict.
16. Retention of Records
Election records, audit logs, evidence, submissions, verification history, and related platform records may be retained for the period stated in the Data & Privacy Policy, unless a different period is required by law, contract, dispute-resolution needs, security investigation, or a signed enterprise agreement.
17. No Sale of Tenant Data
The platform operator will not sell tenant data or user-submitted election data.
Further details are set out in the Data & Privacy Policy.
18. Availability and Changes to the Platform
The platform operator may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the platform for maintenance, security, legal, operational, or product reasons.
The platform operator may also update workflows, validation rules, evidence requirements, role permissions, and discrepancy-detection features.
19. Disclaimer of Warranties
The platform is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, to the maximum extent permitted by law.
The platform operator does not warrant that the platform will be error-free, uninterrupted, immune from attack, or that all submitted data will be accurate or complete.
Users and tenants remain responsible for independent verification of election data before relying on it.
20. Limitation of Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, the platform operator will not be liable for:
- user-submitted false, inaccurate, incomplete, or manipulated data;
- tenant failure to verify submissions;
- public statements made by tenants or users;
- differences between platform tallies and official results;
- loss caused by unauthorised access resulting from user credential compromise;
- indirect, incidental, consequential, reputational, political, or economic loss;
- loss arising from platform downtime, unless otherwise stated in a signed service agreement.
Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.
21. Indemnity
Each tenant agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the platform operator from claims, losses, penalties, liabilities, damages, costs, or expenses arising from:
- false, misleading, or unlawful data submitted by the tenant or its users;
- misuse of platform outputs;
- unauthorised public communications;
- breach of these Terms;
- breach of electoral law, data protection law, or other applicable law;
- infringement of third-party rights;
- failure to verify submitted data before use or publication.
22. Amendments
The platform operator may update these Terms from time to time.
Material changes will be communicated through the platform, website, email, or another reasonable method.
Continued use of the platform after the effective date of updated Terms constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.
23. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Zambia, unless a signed agreement states otherwise.
The parties will first attempt to resolve disputes through good-faith discussions.
If the dispute cannot be resolved amicably, it may be referred to the courts or dispute-resolution forum specified in the applicable service agreement or, if none is specified, the courts of competent jurisdiction in Zambia.
24. Contact
For questions about these Terms, contact: