Harare — President Robert Mugabe looked poised for victory in presidential elections,early Wednesday, as criticism increased about the conduct of the poll and concern was expressed about the possible reaction to the ballot results.
Early returns overnight put the 78-year-old president in a commanding lead over his 50-year-old challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
By Wednesday morning, Mugabe had stretched that lead by 29 per cent, with more than a million votes against about 850,000 for Tsvangirai, after 82 of a total of 120 constituencies had been counted. Several urban polling stations were still to declare, however.
The registrar-general, Tobaiwa Mudede, who is responsible for releasing Zimbabwe's presidential poll results, indicated just after 05:30h (03:30 GMT, 22:30 EST) that Mugabe was leading by almost 250,000 votes. By then, almost two thirds of the estimated 3.1 million votes had been counted.
The reported number of registered voters in Zimbabwe was 5.6 million. Voter turnout was set at 55.4 per cent of the electorate.
At 04:00h, a state radio broadcast announced that the president was comfortably ahead of Tsvangirai: "Comrade Mugabe is leading by a huge margin now...It looks like will stay in office for another term." This would give Mugabe another six years as leader of Zimbabwe where he has held power since the former Rhodesia won independence from Britain in 1980.
"From the current trend, with President Mugabe holding 29 constituencies and Tsvangirai 23, it does not look likely that Tsvangirai can close the gap," added the radio. The MDC leader is trying to end Mugabe's 22 years in power and promising to rebuild the shattered economy. Tsvangirai has accused Mugabe and his government of ruining the country and rigging the election.
There has been mounting criticism by international and local observers within Zimbabwe about the manner and climate in which the presidential poll was held.
The United States has added its voice to the growing chorus of condemnation, saying the election was marred by irregularities. "While we must wait for the final result, it is abundantly clear that this was a seriously flawed election," said US State Department spokesman, Frederick Jones.
An already vocal and critical Australia weighed in with more concerns, saying it feared violence in Zimbabwe if voters suspected electoral fraud. "If the people of Zimbabwe have a sense that they have been cheated through the election process, it is possible that some could resort to violence," said the foreign minister, Alexander Downer.
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The local Zimbabwean Election Support Network (ZESN) told journalists Tuesday: "There is no way these elections could be described as free and fair," adding that tens of thousands of people had been denied the opportunity to vote. The ZESN is an umbrella organization of 38 church and civic groups.
The Norwegian observer mission in Harare, led by Kare Vollan, announced the same day that the ballot had failed "key broadly-accepted criteria" for international elections. Its interim report gave a detailed step-by-step catalogue of violations and abuses, as well as intimidation, leading up to the poll. The Norwegians said Mugabe's Zanu-PF was accountable for the vast majority of pre-election violence, though the MDC was not excused.
State television on Wednesday morning quoted the defence minister as saying the security forces had been put on full alert across Zimbabwe to ensure calm and order after the announcement of the election results.
Home affairs minister John Nkomo told the BBC on Wednesday morning that because "external forces" had tried mislead Zimbabweans into thinking "that President Mugabe is not a legitimate leader, we believe it is necessary for us to be alert for any eventuality."
