Chaotic Voting Closes in Zimbabwe

The government closed the polls Monday in this country’s chaotic presidential election, and a high court judge later rejected the main opposition party’s petition to extend voting to a fourth day.

The election, originally scheduled to be held Saturday and Sunday, had been extended one day by court order after long lines and slow processing at many polling stations prevented thousands of people from casting ballots over the weekend.

Though the order called for the vote to be continued nationwide, the government opened polls only here in the capital and in a nearby township and did so “under protest,” Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told state television. Both areas are considered strongholds of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

However, when crowds of voters returned to polling stations in Harare early Monday, they found that many would not open until afternoon and some not at all.

“Polling was supposed to take place throughout the nation and begin at 7 a.m.,” MDC spokesman Learnmore Jongwe said. “There are thousands of people who would not have had the opportunity to vote.”

The election, the most contentious in the nation’s history, pitted President Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front against MDC challenger Morgan Tsvangirai.

The opposition accused Mugabe of intentionally slowing the voting process to rig the results, a charge the government denied.

“If those thousands of people are not allowed to vote, this is a stillborn election,” Tsvangirai told reporters at a crowded news conference Monday. “The MDC will not be part of an illegitimate process to try to disenfranchise people.”

Tsvangirai Asks for Restraint

State radio reported that election results would not be known before late today or Wednesday. Analysts warned of widespread unrest if MDC voters concluded that the election was fixed.

Tsvangirai called for restraint from his supporters despite the arrest Monday of Welshman Ncube, his party’s secretary-general, for reasons that remained unclear.

“Restrain yourselves so you do not allow [the government’s] sinister plans to succeed,” he said in a statement. “As you wait for the results, do not succumb to their provocative traps. I know they are trying very hard to provoke you.”

The government has accused Tsvangirai, Ncube and another MDC official of trying to assassinate the 78-year-old president. They deny the allegation.

Tsvangirai, 50, who poses the first real challenge to Mugabe’s 22-year rule, alluded to his own life possibly being in danger.

“President Mugabe and his colleagues are afraid of the people, and we have heard they may do anything to kill the messenger,” Tsvangirai said. “If they do, [the people] must stay strong and carry on the work we began together.”

The run-up to the election was marred by violence, with the opposition charging that pro-government militants killed at least 107 of its supporters during the last two years.

The government reported that 2.7 million of the nation’s 5.6 million registered voters, or about 48%, had gone to the polls by Sunday. Thousands more sought the chance Monday.

“They need to add more hours, because we are not going to leave without voting,” Tawanda Tembo, a 30-year-old businessman, said early Monday afternoon before the polls were closed. He had stood in line a total of 18 hours over the first two days of voting without success. “It’s my right to vote.”

4 American Diplomats Held

Also on Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Harare reported that police detained four American diplomats for reasons that were unclear.

The diplomats were on their way back to the capital from the town of Chinhoyi, about 70 miles northwest of Harare. They were stopped at a police roadblock and told to go to a police station, where they were held for about five hours.

“We have not been given a satisfactory reason for their detention,” said Bruce Wharton, an embassy spokesman. “We view that as a clear violation of diplomatic norms, and we are quite concerned about it.”

Two of the Americans were accredited election observers. The other two were diplomats with the U.S. mission here.

Police were unavailable to comment.

The United States and Britain, Zimbabwe’s former colonial master, have been outspoken critics of Mugabe’s rule. His loyalists have accused the two Western nations of setting the stage for a coup if the president is reelected.

Wharton called the charge “ridiculous.”