Zimbabwe slow to release election results

Zimbabwe's main opposition party on Monday claimed victory over President Robert Mugabe's ruling party in the presidential and legislative elections, even though official results were still not available two days after the vote.

It was not immediately clear when full, official results of Saturday's election would be announced. The delay has angered many in the southern African country who suggest the silence is a sign of vote-rigging and fraud.

"We have won an election. Mugabe's victory is not possible given the true facts," Tendai Biti, secretary general of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, told reporters.

Late Monday, Reuters reported that official results showed Mugabe's ruling party had 43 seats, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) 41 and a breakaway MDC faction five.

Earlier in the night, the Associated Press said that MDC won 36 races, including the breakaway faction's five seats, while Mugabe's ruling party got 30.

Concerned by the delay in reporting results, officials from the United States and other western nations urged Monday that the commission count every vote honestly and release results quickly.

Earlier on Monday, the MDC announced its own tally, saying it was leading presidential elections with 60 per cent of the votes. It based its unofficial figure on vote counts posted at polling stations for 128 of the 210 seats in the House of Assembly, the lower chamber of parliament.

Led by former trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC — which on Sunday was warned against declaring victory before official results were released — said Mugabe had won 30 per cent. The rest of the votes were attributed to former ruling party loyalist and finance minister Simba Makoni.

MDC's claims were bolstered by unofficial results tallied by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a coalition of non-governmental organizations, that showed Tsvangirai received 49.4 per cent of the vote while Mugabe got 41.8 per cent.

Voters question delay

Some initial results were known as early as 11 p.m. local time Saturday, about four hours after the polls closed. 

In previous elections, partial results have been announced within hours of polls being closed. At least one election observer said he was convinced the Zimbabwe Election Commission was holding back the results.

"What makes [Zimbabweans] angry about this day is they have no definitive results from this election," the CBC's Adrienne Arsenault reported from the capital, Harare. "They believe that there is no reason why the Zimbabwe Election Commission shouldn't have already released the full results."

Many of the results have been posted on the walls of polling stations, prompting party agents and independent monitoring groups to begin doing the math for themselves in the absence of official overall tallies from the election commission, Arsenault said.

"They believe that it is trending towards Robert Mugabe being defeated, but they are afraid that this delay means something is happening with the count that won't exactly reflect that," she said.

Election commission chairman Judge George Chiweshe — who was forced to flee from a Harare hotel Sunday after being mobbed by journalists and citizens yelling "We want results!" — said the delay was because Zimbabweans were voting for president, the two houses of parliament and local councillors, meaning four ballots, instead of one, had to be counted for each voter.

If no candidate wins more than 51 per cent of the vote, the election will go into a second round.

"Clearly, the delay is fuelling speculation that something might be going on," said Noel Kututwa, chairman of a network of civic, church and other groups.

Riot police sent to Harare

While the vote was largely peaceful, riot police had been dispatched around the capital city, Harare, to maintain order while votes were counted.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, two officials of the ruling party said Mugabe was discussing the possibility of his defeat with security chiefs Sunday night.

All the chiefs have pledged their loyalty to Mugabe, but Western diplomats said that many younger army officers refused an order to vote for Mugabe.

The Southern African Development Community's observer mission characterized the elections as being "in general a free expression of the people of Zimbabwe." They expressed concern, though, over alleged threats by the country's security chiefs, delays in producing the voters' roll, the presence of police officers in polling stations and the lack of impartiality in the state media.

Observers say the official rolls in some districts were inflated with a large number of phantom voters.

Opposition reports suggest that hundreds and possibly thousands of Mugabe's opponents were turned away at the polls, although the president has denied the charges.

The election has presented Mugabe, 84, the country's leader since it gained independence in 1980, with the toughest political challenge to his 28-year rule, which has been badly tarnished in recent years with an economic collapse that has seen inflation rise above 100,000 per cent and unemployment running at 80 per cent.