Voting resumes five hours late

2002-03-11 13:15

Harare - Zimbabwe's chaotic presidential elections resumed for an unscheduled third day on Monday, with polling stations opening five hours late. Two senior opposition officials have also been arrested.

President Robert Mugabe is facing the toughest challenge ever to his 22-year grip on power from Morgan Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader and head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

After being chased away from polling stations by police on Sunday night, thousands of voters returned on Monday morning after the High Court ordered the government to extend voting countrywide for a third day. But the polling stations did not open until noon, after many voters had given up and gone home or to work.

Would comply 'under duress'

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on state television on Monday morning the government would comply with the court order under duress and would only extend voting in Harare and a nearby township, both opposition strongholds. He said many polling stations in the rest of the country had already been dismantled.

Tsvangirai accused Mugabe and his ruling party of attempting to steal the election by driving opposition observers from 43% of the rural polling stations, some of the rural counting stations and discouraging people in urban areas from voting.

"If those thousands of people are not allowed to vote, this is a stillborn election," he said on Monday. "The MDC will not be part of an illegitimate process to try to disenfranchise people."

The opposition party's secretary-general and third ranking official, Welshman Ncube, was arrested on Monday in the southwestern town of Plumtree, while his deputy, Gift Chimanikire, was detained in Harare, said opposition legislator David Coltart. Police gave no reason for the arrests, but Ncube has been charged with treason in a previous case.

'Won't succumb to intimidation'

"We will not succumb to this kind of intimidation," Tsvangirai said, adding that he will not appeal to the country's Supreme Court because they consistently rule against the opposition. He appealed to the people to show restraint and avoid confrontation with security forces.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment. Despite pre-election violence and intimidation that opposition officials blame on Mugabe loyalists, voters headed out in record numbers to cast their ballots during the weekend vote - especially in urban areas like Harare.

The opposition and many observers have accused the government of trying to rig the elections by preventing urban residents - who mostly support the opposition - from voting.

In the poor Mbare neighbourhood of Harare, Duncan Gideon, an unemployed 25-year old who waited all day on Sunday to vote, returned to the polling station after his sister called him and said it had reopened.

'Angry'

"Others have gone to work, others are hungry, sunburned," Gideon said, explaining why many had given up on voting. About 250 people were waiting in line with him.

The presiding officer of the station, who did not give his name, said the reopening was delayed because officials had just received the order to reopen.

Gilot Mudiwi, 30, had waited in line all day on Saturday and Sunday and returned at 05:00 on Monday to vote.

"I'm angry now, I waited for a long time," he said.

In Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo, observers said most people appeared to have cast their ballot and there appeared to be no need for an extra day of voting. The ballot boxes were kept at polling stations overnight and were being moved to counting centres on Monday.

48% voted

Also on Monday, the government announced turnout figures that showed massive voting in Mugabe strongholds with far fewer voters casting ballots in opposition areas.

Mashonaland Central, which normally votes strongly for the ruling party, had a turnout of 68%. Harare had a 47% turnout so far, and the city of Bulawayo 46%, the government said.

Despite the long lines in Harare, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo was quoted in the independent Daily News on Monday as saying that reports of high turnout for Harare were "really pictures painted by people with creative imaginations".

Overall, 2.7 million of the nation's 5.6 million registered voters, or 48%, went to the polls by Sunday, the government said.

US, UK setting stage for 'military offensive'

The Zimbabwe Educational Trust, an independent research group, said last week that the voters' rolls were in such disarray that any turnout higher than 2.6 million could be rigged.

Also on Monday, the state-run Herald newspaper said white people, opposition officials and an American were deployed to some polling stations in a suspicious manner that led authorities to believe there was a plot to disrupt the elections to give the international community a chance to declare them unfair.

The Herald also accused the US and British governments of "setting up the stage for a major military offensive".

US Embassy spokesperson Bruce Warton called the claim "ridiculous".

Tsvangirai, Mugabe's most competitive challenger since independence in 1980, is promising to revive the economy and end corruption.

Mobile pollings stations 'simply disappeared'

Mugabe, however, has painted Tsvangirai as a servant to white interests and Western powers who want to see the country fail. Two weeks ago, Tsvangirai was charged with treason in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Mugabe, an allegation he has denied.

Mugabe has promised public works initiatives if he is re-elected and has pledged to continue his controversial programme of seizing white-owned farms and giving them to landless blacks. Whites make up less than 1% of the country's population but own about a third of the nation's commercial farmland.

During the vote, ruling party militants reportedly took over polling stations, stole voting materials, and brought ballots already marked in favour of Mugabe, observers and opposition supporters have said. Tsvangirai also said his party's poll observers had been abducted, beaten and some were still missing in rural areas.

He said some mobile polling stations in rural areas had "simply disappeared". - Sapa-AP

- SAPA