Harare — Vote-counting got off to an early start in Zimbabwe, Tuesday, after the High Court rejected an opposition request to prolong polling in the contested presidential election into a fourth day.
Across the country, police began transporting ballot boxes from polling stations to counting centres before 07:00h. The votes will be verified and then counted. Government ministers have said results could be known as early as Wednesday.
The race for the presidency in Zimbabwe, between the incumbent Robert Mugabe of the governing Zanu-PF party and his main challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, was bitter, at times violent and peppered with controversy.
Weekend polling saw long queues in pro-opposition urban areas, prompting the MDC to call for extra time, a demand granted by the High Court. The opposition said the government had drastically reduced the number of polling stations in its strongholds to prevent full attendance by MDC voters.
State media has reported a huge turnout in rural Zimbabwe, often seen as more supportive of Robert Mugabe, although some argue that his support-base has been eroded due to the rising cost of living and food shortages.
Stop-start voting in and around Harare, for an unscheduled third day, Monday, was chaotic. Polling centres, scheduled to reopen at 07:00h, were still closed up to five hours later, despite lengthy lines of people still waiting to vote.
It appears thousands did not get that chance, as the registrar-general, Tobaiwa Mudede, ordered polling centres closed at 19:00h on Monday night, after which riot police, some firing tear gas and shots in the air, dispersed would-be voters.
Police reported hundreds of arrests of people who they said had tried to vote twice or cheated in other ways during polling in Harare.
Mudede said: "We allowed the majority of the people who wanted to vote the opportunity to do so, although we cannot say everybody." It said about three million ballots were cast, which would represent about a 50 percent turnout.
The authorities have not produced a precise figure for the national electorate in Zimbabwe. Some 5.6 million eligible voters was the original number published, but the government acknowledges there has been an increase following supplementary registration, which it says continued until 3 March, less than a week before the presidential poll. The opposition says the original cut-off date it was given for the registration of voters was the end of January.
Tsvangirai declared that MDC loyalists had been denied the chance to vote by the authorities, whom he accused of intimidating his supporters and manipulating polling hours in order to steal the vote.
"Because thousands of people are not allowed to vote, this is a stillborn election," Tsvangirai told a news conference on Monday. He said his party would reject a flawed poll. "I think it must be pointed out clearly that MDC will not be part of an illegitimate process of trying to disenfranchise people."
The government has rejected the opposition's accusations that it fixed the ballot. The information minister, Jonathan Moyo who is also a senior Zanu-PF official, told reporters on Monday, "This has been an exemplary election in our view."
On Tuesday morning, the justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa echoed that position. "The elections were conducted peacefully and in a free and fair manner," he told the BBC.
Moyo claimed MDC supporters had behaved like "political hooligans," during the elections, adding that they had indulged in massive intimidation of Zanu-PF voters and violated polling regulations. Moyo predicted a "resounding victory" for Mugabe.
Chinamasa said: "There were isolated incidents of violence and so forth, but there is nothing to write home about. These elections were conducted freely and fairly and in a peaceful manner. There is no one who has been disenfranchised. Everyone has been allowed to vote. Everyone who was on the queue was allowed to vote. And that has been achieved through the extension of the voting to a third day."
That view was not borne out by the situation on the ground on Monday night, when voters who had queued for hours were obliged to go home without casting their ballot.
Initial statements on the conduct of the elections in Zimbabwe by international observers have been mixed.
The South African and Nigerian missions have been generally positive. Samuel Motsuenyane, leading the South African observer delegation, said most people had been able to vote and that major problems were being resolved.
A statement issued Monday night by the South African team said they "will now give particular attention to the critical issue of counting the votes. We want to assist by making sure that the counting is done in a transparent manner - that it truly reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people."
The pro-government Herald newspaper on Monday quoted the head of the Nigerian government's observer delegation, former head of state Chief Ernest Shonekan, giving a ringing endorsement to the election, and telling state television he was "particularly impressed".
"It was very peaceful in all areas my teams visited. It would be difficult for anybody to come and tell us that it (the election) was not free and fair," Shonekan is reported to have said, though he acknowledged that there had been reports of "skirmishes" in some parts of the country.
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The Japanese observer team also gave an early favourable impression of the poll proceedings.
The same cannot be said for the Australians who, along with Nigeria and South Africa, must report to Commonwealth member states on whether Zimbabwe's election was indeed free and fair. If not, Mugabe's country could face suspension.
The Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer, told his country's parliament on Tuesday: "I can't say whether the outcome of this historic election will reflect the will of the people of Zimbabwe, though it would appear that the lead-up to this election has been neither free nor fair." Downer urged an "honest and honourable" count.
In another development in Zimbabwe, Tuesday, the MDC's secretary-general Welshman Ncube appeared in court in Harare and was formally charged with treason. He was arrested on Monday, near Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, by police who said Ncube was trying to leave the country with his family.
Ncube, like Tsvangirai, is facing treason charges linked to an alleged plot to assassinate Mugabe in connection with a video recording. The opposition has denied the accusations.
