Zimbabwe Heads to Polls Amid Fraud Claims
By Newsfromafrica
Zimbabweans have formed long queues at polling stations across the country to cast their votes in the fiercely contested general elections under the new constitution approved in a referendum earlier in March.
The presidential polls are pitting once again President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who have shared a coalition government since 2009 under a power-sharing deal that ended violent clashes, following bungled elections.
Some 6.4 million people are registered to vote in the presidential and parliamentary polls which opened on Wednesday at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) and are due to close at 17:00 GMT.Wednesday has been declared a national holiday to ensure people can cast their vote. The exercise follows weeks of peaceful rally campaigns by contesting candidates in the various positions.
President Mugabe of ZANU-PF has dismissed allegations of vote rigging as mere politicking by Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party’s Tsvangirai which has accused him of doctoring the electoral roll.
Mugabe, 89, has vowed to step down from power if he loses in the polls, assuring of a free and fair exercise.
"If you go into a process and join a competition where there are only two outcomes, win or lose, you can't be both. You either win or lose. If you lose, you must surrender," he said following a news conference held at State House on Tuesday.
Mr Tsvangirai has described the election as an emotional “historic” moment "after all the conflict, the stalemate, the suspicion, the hostility" referring to the uneasy relations in the coalition government.
"This is a very historic moment for us," he was quoted by AFP news agency saying.
Tsvangirai, 61, is attempting for the third time to end Mugabe’s 33 years of rule. The former trade unionist has dismissed the president’s remarks that he would exit from power saying that he does not believe he can be voted out.
“He does not believe in the right of the people to choose”, he told the BBC.
Mr Tsvangirai had won most votes in the first round of the 2008 poll, but pulled out of the run-off with Mr Mugabe because of attacks on his supporters, which left about 200 dead.
MDC on Tuesday accused ZANU-PF of doctoring the voter register released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), only on the eve of polls, after several weeks of delay.
The register is claimed to be dated back to 1985 and full of anomalies. It features the names of thousands of dead people and many names with shared addresses appearing two or three times.
The government has denied accreditation to western observers from monitoring the polls, although it has approved those from African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), as well as local organisations.
Alongside Mugabe and Tsvangirai, there are three other candidates contesting for the presidency - Welshman Ncube, leader of the breakaway MDC-Mutambara; DumisoDabengwa of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu), and KisinotiMunodeiMukwazhe, who represents the small Zimbabwe Development Party (ZDP).
Results of the presidential election are expected within the next five days according to the electoral commission.
To be declared a winner, a presidential candidate must win more than 50% of the vote. If no candidate reaches this mark, a run-off will be held on 11 September.