Results began trickling this evening in Zimbabwe's presidential election as the opposition, observers and foreign governments claimed widespread vote-rigging in favour of incumbent Mr Robert Mugabe, who is seeking to extend his 22-year grip on power.
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A Zimbabwean official pours ballot papers onto a table to be counted in Harare Photo: Reuters
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The first returns from six of the 120 constituencies put Mr Mugabe in the lead, with 69,712 votes to 59,021 votes for former labour leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai.
Journalists and observers were not allowed to watch the count, which was taking place at sites scattered around the country after three days of polling in the hardest fought battle for Zimbabwe's top post since independence from Britain in 1980.
Turnout across the southern African country was an estimated 66 per cent in an election fraught by violence, intimidation and intense legal wrangling over civic rights and electoral rules.
Even after the polls closed, Mr Mugabe's government kept up the pressure on the opposition, formally charging a top official with Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) with high treason, in a case the party has dismissed as a smear campaign.
Mr Welshman Ncube, along with Mr Tsvangirai and four other top party officials, was accused last month of plotting to assassinate the 78-year-old Mr Mugabe.
Voting ended late yesterday after going into a court-ordered extra day because masses of voters in opposition urban strongholds were unable to reach ballot boxes during weekend polling.
Mr Tsvangirai's MDC won the extra day after arguing in court that a sharply reduced number of polling stations in urban areas had prevented its supporters from casting their votes.
As counting began today, the opposition, observers and analysts raised strong objections over the conduct of the poll and warned that a fraudulent outcome could spark violence.
"There is no way these elections could be described as substantially free and fair," said Mr Reginald Matchaba-Hove, chairman of an observer team drawn from a coalition of 38 Zimbabwean civic groups.
The head of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network said urban voters had been "systematically disenfranchised."
Criticism also poured in from abroad.
Britain cited "pretty strong" evidence today that Mr Mugabe has "stolen" Zimbabwe's landmark vote, in a blunt assessment shared by many observers who said it was neither free nor fair.
Norwegian observers reported major flaws in the presidential election, amid growing criticism of the fairness of polls conducted in an atmosphere of violence, intimidation and legal wrangling.
Human rights group Amnesty International also condemned voter intimidation and harassment of observers and called for the immediate release of more than 1,400 people detained by security forces.
The influential International Crisis Group (ICG) warned that the "risk of major violence erupting is exceedingly high" if the election was seen to be rigged.
"Deep resentment combined with economic desperation has created a pressure cooker in parts of Zimbabwe," the European think-tank's co-director for Africa, Mr John Prendergast, said in a statement released here.
Mr Tsvangirai (50) has accused Mugabe's ZANU-PF party of trying to steal the election.
The presidential poll is the most significant -- and acrimonious -- Zimbabwe has seen since Mr Mugabe came to power in 1980 after leading the nation's war of independence.
AFP