Voting has just ended

Thousands queued to vote from early morning yesterday in the most crucial election since independence in 1980, the majority of them desperate to end the misery of economic collapse under the leadership of Zanu PF.

 

According to reports from the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) there have been incidents of of violence and intimidation of voters in Insiza, Emakhandeni-Entumbani and Chegutu constituencies.

 

MDC secretary general Tendai Biti yesterday said they were confident that they had won the election despite clear indications that the ruling party was planning to rig the election.

 

“There is absolutely no doubt we have won this election,” he said.

 

Though the opposition feared many supporters will not have time to vote, polling stations had been cleared of voters by around 2PM in Harare.

 

Voting was largely peaceful but police said a bomb exploded in the house of a ruling party candidate in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo, an opposition stronghold. No-one was hurt.

 

Verification of the ballot papers started immediately after the close of poll with counting expected to follow at polling stations around the country.

 

The police have banned all polical parties to announce the results of the elections and leave it to the Zimbabwe Election Commission officials.

 

But the MDC has said it is sgoing to defy the police order and announce the results as they come with a press conference scheduled to take place in the early morning of Sunday.

 

Some voters from Harare’s high density suburbs on Saturday alleged that police and army units backed by armoured vehicles and water cannons had patrolled overnight.

 

“That is intimidation but we will not be cowed,” said Rodwell Shoshore in the Harare township of Highfield.

 

Some security chiefs say they will not accept a Tsvangirai victory but he said they must be bound by the constitution.

 

For  the presidential race, if no candidate wins more than 51 percent of the vote on Saturday, the election will go into a second round, when the two opposition parties would likely unite–