ZIMBABWE: Residents of two populous suburbs of the Zimbabwe capital, Harare, voted for a second time yesterday in key by-elections, amid opposition claims that the polls were not free and fair.
Voting was reportedly slow and uneventful in the morning, but later the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claimed scores of ruling party supporters closed down several polling stations ahead of time.
A tense atmosphere marked voting in Highfield and Kuwadzana, which President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has pledged to win back from the opposition.
The MDC says the elections have been marred by widespread intimidation of voters, with one information officer claiming would-be voters were turned away by ZANU-PF supporters in Kuwadzana.
But the spokesman for the official Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC), Mr Thomas Bvuma, denied any reports of violence. "No polling station has been closed," he said.
Voting was scheduled to end at 7 p.m. local time (6 p.m. Irish time). State radio said the voting process had been "generally peaceful".
Earlier Mr Nelson Chamisa, the MDC candidate for Kuwadzana, told a press conference: "The circumstances and environment are not conducive for a free and fair election."
The party alleged the voters' rolls for the two suburbs had been inflated with non-residents and that ZANU-PF had been buying votes with hand-outs of the scarce national staple, maize-meal.
An MDC information officialsaid three of the party's vehicles were stoned over the weekend by ZANU-PF supporters.
Official reports estimate more than 27,000 people had voted in both suburbs by yesterday afternoon out of a total of 88,000 registered voters. - (AFP)