Close contest in Zimbabwe elections
Opposition claims that the slow announcement of results is a sign of vote-rigging.
The election commission is yet to announce any results in the race for the presidency.
Opposition claims
However, the MDC announced its own tally and claimed on Monday that its results, based on counts posted at polling stations in 128 of the country’s 210 parliamentary districts, showed it was leading presidential elections.
A presidential candidate needs at least 50 per cent plus one vote to avoid a runoff.
Biti said: “The people have spoken against the dictatorship. We are anxiously waiting for the final results.
In video | ||
|
“We pray that there will not be re-creation and re-engineering of the people’s will.”
The ZEC had said the delay was due to presidential and parliamentary elections being held at the same time, but the piecemeal announcement has left observers questioning the transparency of the process.
Growing impatience
Kamahl Santamaria, reporting from Harare, the capital, said there was a lot of frustration considering that no word was heard from the ZEC for quite a while.
Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa, reporting the town of Bulawayo, said that speculation was rife due to the delay in the announcment of results.
“This is an opposition stronghold, and they are hoping to win the presidential elections,” she said.
Some opposition supporters began celebrating after the MDC declared it was in the lead [AFP] |
US concern
The US has “strongly encouraged” Zimbabwean authorities to properly count the election ballots cast.
Tom Casey, deputy spokesman for the State Department, said that Washington was concerned about “massive overprinting of ballots” and the deployment of police at polling stations in the lead-up to the elections.
Mutasa also said that if the MDC loses the elections, they will blame it on fraud.
Some election observers have said that initial results were known by 11pm (2100 GMT) on Saturday night, just four hours after polls closed.
In previous elections, partial results have been announced within hours of voting ending.
Notable early results included defeat for Patrick Chinamasa, Mugabe’s outgoing justice minister, in the rural eastern constituency of Makoni central.
The MDC also won the first seat to be declared, the newly-formed constituency of Chegutu West, to the west of Harare.
High security
Riot police patrolled Harare on Monday as the first results came in.
Before the polls, police said they would crush any premature celebrations but they were striking a softer line on Monday after a weekend of impromptu victory parties by MDC supporters.
“Police are very much still on high alert and appeal to those wanting to celebrate to do so with respect for other people,” Wayne Bvudzijena, national police spokesman, said.
“It’s human to celebrate but they should not provoke, intimidate or insult others.”