Zimbabwe’s opposition claimed a clear lead over President Robert Mugabe and his party as pressure mounted on Monday evening for the swift announcement of full results from presidential and parliamentary polls. Earlier on Monday, the United Kingdom-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting said that Mugabe was to announce victory.
President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party were to announce victory on Monday in the country’s parliamentary and presidential elections, according to unofficial results leaked from the Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission command centres.
If this was the day that the big change would take place, Harare did not look the part. If it weren’t for the posters and the tent structures for polling stations on open land, one would be forgiven for thinking this was just another sleepy public holiday in the capital of Zimbabwe.
African observers charged on Saturday that they had discovered fraudulent voters rolls in the Zimbabwe election, listing more than 8Â 000 apparently non-existent people. Marwick Khumalo, head of the Pan African Parliament, said that in one Harare constituency, ”8Â 450 [voters] have been registered under block 081083 … which is a deserted land with a few scattered wooden sheds”.