Zimbabwe voting day marred by late opening of polling stations

Voting is under way in Zimbabwe’s second general elections since a 2017 coup removed former president Robert Mugabe.

About 6.6-million voters are going to the polls today to cast their ballots to elect a new president, MPs and councillors. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) published 12,370 polling stations that will be used in the election.

The voting process has been marred by delays in opening polling stations. In a statement, the ZEC said polling stations opened late “due to the late deployment of election material”.

“Delays in the opening have largely been caused by delays in printing of the ballot papers arising from court challenges. This has been the case with Harare and Bulawayo provinces.

“The public is advised that all polling stations that opened late for reasons beyond the control of the presiding officer will remain open to cater for the period of the delay, keeping in mind the polling station must remain open for a continuous period of at least 12 hours on polling day,” said the ZEC.

The delays meant voters had to wait longer to cast their ballots.

Susan Zviremba told TimesLIVE she was disappointed.

“I came to the polling station early in the morning but had to wait a few hours for the station to open. It is very disheartening,” said Zviremba.

The electoral body said presidential election results will be announced within five days after polling day at ZEC national collation centres across the country.

TimesLIVE