President Robert Mugabe faces a stiff challenge from opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Zimbabweans yesterday, July 31, 2013 voted in fiercely contested presidential, parliamentary and local elections which were already plagued by allegations of fraud before polling began, BBC reported.
Voting began on time at 7 am local time with long, peaceful queues forming outside polling stations as people waited for over two hours in some areas to cast their vote in the harsh winter weather, the SAPA news agency said. Observers from African monitoring missions and foreign embassies said there were no problems. The turnout was reportedly high among the 6.4 million registered voters.
The first results for local and parliamentary elections were expected soon after polls closed. The presidential tally could take up to five days to announce, the Election Commission said. If there is no outright winner, a runoff will be held on September 11, 2013. The elections are the first to be held under the new constitution approved in a referendum last March. Campaigning ahead of the election was mostly peaceful, with few reports of intimidation.
On the eve of polling, President Robert Mugabe, 89, promised to step down after 33 years in power if he and his ZANU-PF party lost. His main challenger, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) accused ZANU-PF of doctoring the electoral roll, a charge it denied. Casting his vote, Tsvangirai said it was an emotional moment after all the conflict, stalemate, suspicion and hostility, the Agence France Presse, AFP, news agency reported.
Five candidates are running for the office of President, with three of them contesting for the first time. They are President Robert Mugabe of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, ZANU-PF, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, 61, of the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai, MDC-T opposition faction and Prof. Welshman Ncube, 51, of the Movement for Democratic Change-Mutambara, MDC-M party.
Others are Dumiso Dabengwa, 71, of the splinter Zimbabwe African People’s Union, ZAPU and Kisinoti Mukwazhe, 43, of the Zimbabwe Development Party, ZDP. Mugabe and Tsvangirai are clearly the frontrunners, with the results expected to be close.
