The Ncube-led MDC formation alleges that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is trying to rig Wednesday's election in favour of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF party.

The party says the city of Bulawayo has received ballot papers that are three times more than the number of registered voters.

MDC spokesman Nhlanhla Dube said at least 900,000 ballot papers had been sent by ZEC to Bulawayo which has 321,000 registered voters, sparking fears of vote rigging.

Dube said the ballot papers were discovered when all political parties were tallying the numbers sent into their area by ZEC.

But he says his party is closely monitoring the movement of the ballot boxes to counter any possible rigging.

Dube also said that the pictures on the ballot papers were unclear, raising concern that people with sight problems would find it difficult to identify their preferred candidates.

Other people have also observed irregularities regarding voting papers, with Crisis in Zim Coalition's Macdonald Lewanika tweeting that in Chipinge South's Ward 28, voting had been suspended because pictures of ballot papers for MPs had been swapped - with a picture of ZANU Ndonga on MDC, and MDC on ZANU Ndonga papers.