Zimbabwe poll declared ‘null and void’ by Mugabe challenger

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said yesterday that the
poll a day earlier was heavily manipulated and did not meet regional or African election standards.

A poll monitoring group that is not affiliated with the state said the poll was compromised.

Solomon Zwana, head of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, said they had found a “wide range of problems” and that the poll was compromised by a campaign to stop voters from casting ballots.

The monitoring group says as many as one million out of more than six million eligible voters were not on voters’ lists.

Mr Mugabe has denied allegations of vote-rigging as a smear campaign by opponents.

Earlier Mr Mugabe’s party said it had withdrawn an unauthorised message on its Twitter feed claiming a resounding victory in the presidential and parliamentary elections.

Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party posted a disclaimer saying it awaited the release of results by the state election commission, the only body allowed under the law to announce the outcome of massive voting on Wednesday.

But witnesses said figures displayed outside polling stations in the Mbare township of Harare, a stronghold of Mr Tsvangirai since polls in 2002, showed Mr Mugabe winning there.

Mr Tsvangirai’s party is claiming widespread electoral fraud. Witnesses said it won just four of 26 parliament seats in the eastern Manicaland province it had dominated.

Extra police, some in riot gear, were deployed yesterday in the capital Harare.