News
Zimbabwe Presidential elections 2013: Vote counting underway – both Mugabe and Tsvangirai sure of victory
Voting concluded Wednesday in most of Zimbabwe’s polling stations in elections in which Robert Mugabe, faced one of the biggest challenges to his hold on power.
A few polling stations were prepared to stay open into the night to accommodate all voters who were in line by 7 p.m. local time (1 p.m. EDT). Vote counting began Wednesday night and final results are expected by Monday next week.
Zimbabweans voted in large numbers, and the elections were relatively peaceful compared to disputed polls in 2008.
Polling officials and party agents brought blankets to polling stations so that they could sleep next to the polling boxes to make sure they were not tampered with.
There have been worries about oversights in the hasty preparations for the vote, as well as fears of alleged vote-rigging of the kind that occurred in past elections.
Tendai Biti, the third-ranking official in the former opposition party of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe’s challenger, reported discrepancies across several districts.
But “we are encouraged by the high turnout. We remain confident in spite of all these challenges,” Biti said late Wednesday.
