Heraldo de Madrid - Zimbabwe arrests election monitors as opposition lashes "flawed" poll

Thirty-nine monitors from two Zimbabwean pro-democracy groups were arrested in multiple raids on Wednesday night and their computers and mobile phones were seized, police said.

"These were coordinating the alleged release of election results by some civic organisations," police spokesman Paul Nyathi said.

Some were taken from an "election observation data centre," according to a group of human rights lawyers.

The monitors are staff with the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and Election Resource Centre (ERC), which seek to promote free and fair elections.

Less than a quarter of polling stations in Harare -- an opposition stronghold -- opened on time on Wednesday, electoral authorities said, blaming delays in printing ballot papers.

The problems forced President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is seeking a second term, to issue a late-night directive extending the vote by another day.

In dozens of voting stations, voters braved long waits for ballot papers to be delivered for the triple elections, for the presidency, legislature and municipal councils.

The poll is being watched across southern Africa as a test of support for Mnangagwa's ZANU-PF party, whose 43-year rule has been battered by a moribund economy and charges of authoritarianism.

The largest opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), which poses the biggest challenge to Mnangagwa, lashed the electoral process as "fundamentally flawed."

Delays, intimidation and other irregularities meant the ballot was "unable to produce a free and fair electoral outcome," CCC spokesman Promise Mkwananzi told reporters.

"Nonetheless we knew this beforehand, and we have prepared ourselves to win an unfree and unfair election."

Nelson Chamisa, head of the CCC, earlier slammed the delays as "a clear case of voter suppression, a classic case of Stone Age, antiquated, analog rigging".

Chamisa, 45, is the main challenger to Mnangagwa, 80, who came to power after a coup that deposed late ruler Robert Mugabe in 2017.

Confident of victory, he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: "It's a decisive win!".

- Chaotic vote -

In Glen Norah, a southwestern suburb of Harare, ballot papers only arrived around 2:00 am (0000 GMT) -- some 17 hours behind schedule.

On Thursday morning, voters returned to a school used as polling station.

"We waited for the whole day," said Lawrence Dzukutu, 52, a vendor who returned to cast his ballot, having spent 16 hours outside the school gates on Wednesday.

"We thought we should have finished this process yesterday."

Empty water and juice bottles were scattered outside the turquoise perimeter wall, remnants of the fruitless hours people had spent queueing there the day before.

Still, while frustrated many were determined the election would still go their way.

Tafadzwa Chipfuva, a doctor aged 43, was confident his vote would matter. "It has to count, that's why I am here," he said.

Analysts described the vote as arguably the most chaotic in Zimbabwe's history.

The confusion was "unprecedented," said Sara Dorman, a specialist at Scotland's University of Edinburgh.

"It is quite hard to understand how a country can run elections regularly since independence and then have such a chaotic election day."

Dorman said she was reminded of elections in 2008, when a strong opposition showing was followed by a wave of political violence and repression.

"It is very noticeable that the polling stations that were lacking in ballots were all in areas that are considered opposition strongholds," she said.

- Decline -

As a white-ruled British colony named Rhodesia, the country broke away from London in 1965, gaining independence in 1980 after a long guerrilla war and renamed Zimbabwe.

But under Mugabe, its first leader, the fledgling democracy spiralled into hardline rule and economic decline, with hyperinflation wiping out savings and deterring investment.

Chamisa is vowing to stamp out corruption, revive the economy and end the international isolation that began under Mugabe.

Yet in a nation with a history of tainted elections, few believe the youthful lawyer and pastor has many chances.

Chamisa narrowly lost to Mnangagwa in 2018, a poll that he condemned as fraudulent and was followed by a deadly crackdown.

The elections are being monitored internationally by observers from the European Union, Commonwealth, African Union and the 16-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC).

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P.Sanabria--HdM