Polling stations opened late in Zimbabwe’s elections on Wednesday, with Harare and Bulawayo the most affected provinces, with voting yet to start as some centres as late as 4 PM.
Some voters across the country’s largest cities spent the greater part of the day milling around polling stations with no voting taking place after electoral officials failed to deliver voting materials on time.
Reports suggest that as late as 3 PM, voting had not yet started at Glen Norah Community Hall, Kundai Primary School, and Chembira Hall.
The three polling stations are in Harare’s Ward 26 under Glenview North Constituency.
Electoral officials said they were waiting for the arrival of ballot papers.
Award-winning journalist Hopewell Chin’ono said at Cold Comfort, which is also in Harare, voting had yet to start later on Wednesday afternoon. Chin’ono tweeted:
Dear Election Observers, 9 hours later some polling stations like this one called Cold Comfort have not yet opened.
The fear now is that if voting takes place at night, rural voters will be bussed into urban areas by ZANU-PF to pretend as if they are legitimate urbanites!
The legitimacy of this election matters because a disputed election result will plunge the whole Southern African region into another 5-year crisis.
This will trigger another mass immigration movement to South Africa triggering social unrest there driven by opportunistic parties since there is an election in 2024 in SA.
Zimbabwe needs to get this election right, but we are now on the precipice.
In Harare, only 23% of voting stations open on time while in Bulawayo 75% of polling stations opened an hour or more late.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said the delays in the opening of pols were caused by delays in the printing of the ballot paper arising from numerous Court challenges.
ZEC said that in Masvingo, Matabeleland North, and Matabeleland South provinces, 100% of polling stations opened at 7 AM.
In Midlands and Mashonaland West provinces, 99% of polling stations reportedly opened at 7 AM, while in Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland East provinces, 95% of polling stations opened at 7 AM.
ZEC said 85% of polling stations opened at 7 AM in Manicaland, while in Bulawayo, 75% of polling stations opened at 8:15 AM.
More: Pindula News