Murewha - The Zimbabwean electoral authority on Wednesday night extended voting hours from 7pm to midnight to clear backlogs of voters who turned out in their millions in one of the country’s most crucial elections.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai is making his third attempt to unseat President Robert Mugabe, 89, who has been in power for 33 years.
Voters also chose national legislators and local councillors yesterday in a day of polling that was largely free of reported violence or major intimidation.
In some polling stations, especially Harare, the queues of voters were so long that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) extended voting by five hours.
While the ZEC said there was a high general voter turnout, many analysts who have covered elections for many years, said they were surprised at the speed with which voting cleared early morning queues in Harare.
Sean O’Leary, a member of a Roman Catholic election observer mission, said in the afternoon he had been to about 17 voting stations in Bulawayo and seen virtually no queues. He speculated this was bad news for the two MDC parties as Bulawayo and Matabeleland were their strongholds.
But in one section of Bulawayo, 34 percent more voters turned out than in 2008, in the current contest between David Coltart from Welshman Ncube’s smaller MDC party, and Thabitha Khumalo, the sitting MP loyal to Morgan Tsvangirai’s larger MDC.
“We were surprised how many more came out to vote this time. We do not know if that is reflected all over the city,” said Coltart’s campaign manager, Tim Leher.
According to social media, and some unverified reports, an unknown number of new voters were turned away as electoral officers said their names did not appear on the roll.
Richard Mombeshora, rector of Chikwaka Primary school and Shelly Cripps Orphanage in Mashonaland East – a province which has witnessed political violence in the past – said on Wednesday: “There is great political tolerance nowadays. People wearing different political regalia were campaigning and even drinking together.”
At Gomomonzi in Mashonaland East, social worker Vincent Tafirenyika, 30, said the area had changed a lot “as this area is politically mixed between Zanu-PF and MDC-T (Tsvangirai’s MDC).
“There is no tension here like last time.” he said, adding that he believed his vote would remain secret.
In Harare, both Mugabe and Tsvangirai agreed that the elections had been largely peaceful.
“I am sure people will vote freely and fairly. There is no pressure exerted on anyone,” said Mugabe after he voted at Mofu Primary School, High Fields Township, east of Harare.
Speaking to the media after casting his ballot at Mount Pleasant School, Tsvangirai said: “There is a sense of calmness that finally Zimbabweans will be able to move on.”
AU observer mission head and former Nigerian president Olusegum Obasanjo said: “There is nothing so far to worry about. We have received reports from observers in the field. I don’t see anything now to doubt the credibility of the election.”
But hours before voting opened, MDC lawyers in Harare went to court to demand that the ZEC immediately release both hard copies and electronic versions of the voters’ roll.
At noon on Wednesday, the high court ruled that ZEC should release the rolls, but by Wednesday evening the MDC in Harare said it had not received even hard copies of the roll.
ZEC said that people who were turned away from the polling station but had their receipt from registering as well as their identity card could vote.
There were many incidents of voter unhappiness posted over social media including missing ballots, mysterious polling stations but these were impossible to confirm.
Tendai Biti, MDC secretary-general, said he found a group of young voters, who he claimed did not come from Harare but had showed up to vote at a main polling station in the northern part of the city. Biti reported them to electoral officials saying the dozen or so young men were claiming they had a “special” vote, and were policemen.
Results for the local government elections are expected to start coming in today but for the crucial presidential election, the ZEC has been prepared to say only that the result will be announced within the prescribed five days.
Independent Foreign Service