BARD AI
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- Jul 24, 2018
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Utaratibu huo ambao si wa kawaida umefanyika kutokana na baadhi ya Kata zilizopangiwa kukamilisha zoezi hilo kwa siku moja, kuchelewa kupata Karatasi za Kupigia Kura na baadhi ya Vituo Kuchelewa Kufunguliwa hali iliyokwamisha zoezi hilo.
Maeneo yaliyopata changamoto ni Harare na Bulawayo ambako ni ngome za Upinzani chini mgombea wake Nelson Chamisa ambaye amemtaja Rais Emmerson Mnangagwa kuhusika na hujuma hiyo na kueleza kuwa anatumia njia za kizamani kuvuruga Uchaguzi.
Zimbabwe inafanya Uchaguzi wa 9 tangu ilipopata Uhuru mwaka 1990, Wagombe 11 wanawania Kiti cha Urais akiwemo Mwanamke mmoja na Rais Mnangangwa aliyeingia madarakani kwa kumpindua Hayati Robert Mugabe aliyetawala Taifa hilo kwa miaka 37.
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Zimbabwe has extended voting in selected wards by a day after the late distribution of ballot papers delayed polling, according to a presidential decree issued late Wednesday.
Voters in the southern African country waited for hours to vote on Wednesday, saying they were hungry for change from economic chaos, but analysts were sceptical that the ruling ZANU-PF party would allow a credible election or any loosening of its stranglehold on power.
According to Zimbabwean law, voting is supposed to take place within one day.
The presidential notice listed 40 wards it said were affected by the delays. Although the named areas make up less than 1% of the country's 12,374 wards, they include 11 wards in the capital Harare, which has the highest number of registered voters.
According a notice from President Emmerson Mnangagwa announcing the extra day, the affected wards are in three of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces - opposition stronghold Harare, Mashonaland Central, where the ruling party is traditionally dominant, and Manicaland, which is a key battleground.
Mnangagwa is seeking re-election after a first term during which runaway inflation, currency shortages and sky-high unemployment left many Zimbabweans reliant on dollar remittances from relatives abroad to make ends meet.
Mnangagwa, 80, took over when longtime strongman Robert Mugabe was toppled in a 2017 military coup. He faces 10 other candidates, including his main challenger, lawyer and pastor Nelson Chamisa, 45, of the Citizens Coalition for Change.
"I am expecting change. We are struggling and hungry," said Mabel Fambi, 67, who cares for five of her grandchildren because their parents cannot find jobs. She was waiting to cast her ballot in the Kuwadzana constituency in the capital Harare.
In Harare and the country's second biggest city Bulawayo, both opposition strongholds, a significant number of polling stations opened hours late, forcing voters to wait for most of the day.
"I see this delay as a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise me," said Fortune Sikireta, who had been waiting to vote since dawn at Maranatha Christian High School in the middle-income Harare suburb of Tynwald. By late afternoon he had yet to vote but was determined to see it through.
The electoral commission blamed the delays on late printing of ballot papers caused by court challenges, saying in a morning statement that only 23% of Harare's polling stations had opened on time.
Few or no delays were reported in other parts of the country.
Analysts said that, as in previous Zimbabwean elections, ZANU-PF, which has been in power for 43 years, had been using state institutions to ensure it would stay in power.
REUTERS
