Local elections in Zimbabwe got underway Saturday despite protests from the main opposition party that half its candidates will not be standing because of intimidation and unfair nomination practices.
The Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) said although the two-day poll to elect councillors in predominantly rural wards had commenced, it was too early to give details on the turnout.
The country’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party has claimed that 699 of its candidates out of around 1 400 wards had been intimidated or barred from standing in the two-day poll.
Victory has thus been effectively handed to President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) in half of all wards.
A last-minute bid by the MDC to have the poll postponed failed when a High Court judge rejected their application late on Friday.
State radio reported that hundreds of people were queuing outside polling stations in southwestern Zimbabwe and that voting was underway peacefully.
The election, which occurs every four years, comes six months after a disputed presidential poll returned Mugabe to power.
Mugabe’s main opponent in that election, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, has rejected Mugabe’s victory and mounted a court challenge that is still to be heard.
Tsvangirai claims victory was stolen from him through electoral fraud and intimidation of his supporters.
In a statement on Friday the United States said prospects for a free and fair election this weekend were ”dismal” as the Zimbabwe government had not taken ”steps to ensure conditions for a credible
democratic election.”
”Given these circumstances, the outlook for free and fair local elections in Zimbabwe is dismal,” State Department representative Richard Boucher added. – Sapa-AFP