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afrol News, 11 March - The Zimbabwean presidential elections have been extended for one day in the Harare Province after it became clear that the polling stations' capacity had been far too low. While voters were chased away yesterday evening, they again flock to vote in the capital today. Harare Province comprises the cities of Harare and Chitungwiza. The opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) yesterday brought an urgent application before the High Court to extend voting in Harare Province for an extra day. Long, slow queues have been the order of the day over this election weekend in both Harare and Chitungwiza. The impossibly slow processing of voters in Harare, where there are Tripartite elections for President, Mayor and Councillors has been matched in Chitungwiza where there are Bipartite elections for President and Mayor. The Zimbabwean Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa, tonight bowed to a High Court order to extend the Harare elections to a third day. High Court Judge Dhlatswayo had originally ruled that voting be extended countrywide by a day, but this was overruled by Minister Chinamasa. Yesterday afternoon, representatives from MDC and the government party, ZANU-PF, joined Chinamasa and Judge Dhlatswayo in helicopters, which flew over both Harare and Chitungwiza to assess the number of voters still in queues across the cities. As the polling stations closed yesterday evening at 7pm, confusion in Harare still was total. The Registrar General of Elections on Saturday had issued a statement, ordering that "voters already in the queue by 1900 hours will be allowed to vote and polling stations will not close until they are cleared." It was further known that the MDC had brought an urgent application before the High Court to extend voting in the capital. On government orders, polling stations across both Chitungwiza and Harare were however shut down, forcing thousands of voters to leave without casting their votes before 7pm. The response to the closing of polling stations yesterday night has been varied. In Glenview 7, police used tear gas to disperse voters. In parts of Warren Park, voting continued after 7pm. In other areas voters dispersed peacefully once they had been advised that voting would continue on Monday morning. Voter turnout seems to have been uncharacteristically high the country's two main urban centres, Bulawayo and Harare. Harare and Chitungwiza are both strongholds of the opposition MDC. In addition to a high turnout, the number of polling stations was far too low. The government last month had decided to reduce the number of polling stations in urban areas, especially Harare. Although there were immediate protests by the MDC and civil society, the government chose to go ahead. In Harare and Chitungwiza, the number of polling stations was reduced by 30 percent from those used during the 2000 parliamentary election - in some parts even by 50 percent. The MDC claims this was a deliberate action by ZANU-PF to discourage Harare voters by long queues, "by ensuring that the voting process in MDC strongholds is slowed down." Seeing that the elections in Harare impossibly could be carried through, the MDC was joined by international observers monitoring the election and parts of the press in its outcry to extend the poll. The independent Zimbabwe newspaper the 'Daily News' concluded in its leader yesterday; "The government may have made voting easy for the rural communities, but that is no reason for it to make it extremely difficult for urban dwellers to vote." There are still no indications about the results of the presidential elections, where President Robert Mugabe is challenged by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. No votes are to be counted and ballot boxes are to remain sealed until all the votes, including today's votes in Harare, have been cast. It was also prohibited to question voters leaving the polling stations about what they had voted. Nevertheless, the government-controlled daily 'The Herald' today claimed it had seen figures showing President Mugabe was set to win the elections. "THE MDC is headed for defeat in the presidential election as figures released so far show a massive turnout in rural areas, which are traditionally a ZANU-PF stronghold," the Harare-based newspaper writes today. 'The Herald' based its assessment on the high voters' turnout in rural areas, while turnout in areas where the MDC won in the June 2000 legislative elections had been lower. Opinion polls before the elections however concluded the MDC leader had a small lead on the incumbent President.
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