Harare — The first day of polling in Zimbabwe's fiercely fought presidential election was marked by long delays and increasingly impatient queues of people waiting to vote. Later in the day, tempers boiled over and there were reports of unrest.
By the scheduled close of polling stations for the day, at 19h local time, reports were circulating that this had been extended in a number of areas to allow people to cast their ballot. Other would-be voters left for home.
Some people had started their election vigil well before dawn on a chilly and grey Saturday, waiting for voting to start at 7am local time.
Reports of clashes between police and angry voters, frustrated at the slow pace of polling, filtered through from the western township of Kuwadzana in the capital, Harare in the afternoon.
Witnesses said security forces fired teargas and rubber bullets, and used whips, to subdue a group, whose patience was running thin, as people attempted to force their way into the polling station to demand explanations. Some 12 people were reported injured.
Meanwhile the main opposition contender in Zimbabwe's landmark poll, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change, is crying foul. He has called for an extension of the weekend vote beyond Sunday. Tsvangirai conducted a whistlestop tour of ballot centres around Harare and declared himself satisfied with the high turnout in his urban stronghold, but was anxious at the slow-moving lines of voters.
He has accused the government of President Robert Mugabe of deliberately slashing the number of polling stations to thwart the will of Zimbabweans, and prevent them from voting. "Mugabe is trying to move the goalposts to disenfranchise people," he said.
"So, the intention is very, very clear, but we hope people will be patient. There has been a reduction in Harare's polling stations from 249 to 176 (since the parliamentary elections in 2000) in a population which has increased," Tsvangirai told reporters at Chitungwiza, just outside Harare, where thousands of his supporters were queuing to vote.
Later, the justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, told the BBC: "Everyone who wants to vote is going to vote. If it is necessary to extend the voting date, there is no problem. We would be prepared to extend even for two days. Everyone who wants to vote is going to vote."
The MDC said Mugabe's Zanu-PF party activists had prevented hundreds of MDC polling agents from monitoring the nationwide vote. "Zanu-PF is now engaged in a last-ditch effort to stop people from voting it out of power, by ensuring that the voting process in MDC strongholds is slowed down," said Tsvangirai.
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The opposition has accused the government of trying to massage the poll and creating confusion among the electorate so that Mugabe can steal the vote, a charge denied by the authorities.
Tsvangirai plans to vote on Sunday, his 50th birthday, and said winning the election would be a great birthday gift. Mugabe, 78, voted Saturday at a high school in Highlands in Harare and told reporters he was confident of victory, but would accept any result.
The two-month lead up to the March 9-10 presidential poll has often been violent with Tsvangirai's MDC alleging intimidation by Mugabe's Zanu-PF activists, saying this had prevented them from pursuing an effective campaign. Mugabe held 50 rallies, Tsvangirai less than a dozen. But the government has blamed campaign violence on the opposition and denied that it authorized or encouraged its supporters to use dirty tricks and spoiling tactics against its political opponents.
Independent observers have blamed most of the pre-election unrest on Zanu-PF.
Although both sides in Zimbabwe are predicting victory, analysts conclude that, if voting is transparent, it will be a close finish, with Tsvangirai's supporters having to vote massively in the capital and other cities to ensure that he wins.
Mugabe has the advantage of rural support, longevity and being a leader of the independence war against white minority rule and British colonialism. But the president also carries the albatross of a failed economy, growing unemployment, food and fuel shortages and concerned talk of starvation in some areas of Zimbabwe, a country that was once called the breadbasket of southern Africa.
