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High turnout favours Zanu-PF
04/02/2004 11:33 - (SA)
Harare, Zimbabwe - State radio said voter turnout was heavy in a parliamentary by-election in southern Zimbabwe where the opposition said balloting was marred by intimidation and vote rigging.
The two-day poll ends on Tuesday in the ruling party stronghold of Gutu, 240km south of Harare, to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Vice President Simon Muzenda last September.
State radio said 22 000 voters, about 37% of those registered in the district, cast their ballots on the first day. The heavy turnout was expected to favour the ruling party.
However, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change said it was protesting irregularities in the voting.
The opposition said at almost all the 55 polling stations tribal leaders loyal to the ruling party scrutinised voters and wrote down their names in what it called "a deliberate attempt to intimidate them."
Teachers prevented
Opposition spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said teachers across the district, known as sympathetic to the opposition, were prevented from voting.
Voters lists were tampered with and an opposition activist, Monica Mambanje, was seized and taken away in a truck from one polling station Monday, he said.
"We cannot accept the result of an election whose result is blatantly determined through intimidation and systematic rigging," Nyathi said.
Police spokesperson Dimax Musonza there were no reports of violence during voting.
Police have denied opposition allegations of intimidation by ruling party militants.
Businessman Crispen Musoni is running for the opposition against Josiah Tungamirai, a retired military officer.
- AP
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