(3 minutes read)
Voting was still underway in Zimbabwe on 24th August, where long delays in distributing ballot papers forced the president to extend the general election by a day at dozens of polling stations. Voting delays were mainly registered in the opposition’s urban strongholds.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission acknowledged the late distribution of ballot papers and blamed it on printing delays arising from numerous court challenges. Over 6 million registered voters have to choose the country’s next president, members of the national assembly, and councilors. Some polling stations opened two hours after the official closing time on Wednesday, the first day of the election, while others suspended voting, and officials asked people to return in the morning.
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Counting of ballots began at some polling stations. This is the second general election since the ouster of longtime ruler Robert Mugabe in a coup in 2017. The southern African nation of 15 million people has vast mineral resources, including Africa’s largest reserves of lithium, a key component in making electric car batteries. But watchdogs have long alleged that widespread corruption and mismanagement have gutted much of the country’s potential.
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Ahead of the election, opposition and rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused Mnangagwa of seeking to silence dissent amid rising tensions due to a currency crisis, and a sharp hike in food prices. Zimbabwe police said that they had arrested 41 workers for poll monitoring groups and seized their equipment including computers to tabulate the results of vote counting. Votes are being collated after widespread delays in the southern African nation led to the extension of balloting to Thursday night at dozens of polling stations. The arrested observers work with two accredited monitoring organizations — the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network and the Election Resource Center — which deployed over 7,500 observers nationwide.
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The spokesperson for the main opposition party Citizens Coalition for Change, Charles Kwaramba, slammed a move aimed at barring observers from monitoring and broadcasting the truth about the election”.
