Police in Zimbabwe are warning they will arrest anyone who releases unofficial vote tallies from Wednesday’s hotly contested presidential polls that pitted President Robert Mugabe against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

In the past, vote monitoring groups in Zimbabwe have issued independent tallies based on results from polling stations after preliminary counts.  But late Wednesday, police vowed a crackdown that extends to the online publication of any results issued before the country’s electoral commission does so.

The commission has until next Monday to release full results.

Just hours after polls closed, it was not clear what impact the police threat would have on civic groups that  traditionally have announced provisional tallies before the government does.

The 89-year-old Mugabe and 61-year-old Prime Minister Tsvangirai were the main contestants in the five-candidate race that is expected to end a fragile power sharing government the two principals were forced to put together in 2009.

It is Tsvangirai’s third attempt to unseat Mugabe, who led the country to independence in 1980. 

The 2009 power sharing deal, spawned by Tsvangirai’s accusations of fraud, ended a round of post-election unrest that left 200 of the challenger’s supporters dead.

Earlier Wednesday, Tsvangirai characterized the current election as an extension of the 2008 contest, and said he expects the outcome to “finally” resolve the country’s four-year political crisis.

VOA’s Sebastian Mhofu reported long lines of voters in the capital, Harare, through much of Wednesday, and described the polling as largely peaceful.  However, he said some voters voiced frustration with long lines and problems with finding their names at polling stations. [Read More]

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Source: VOA News: Economy and Finance