Thousands blocked from Zimbabwe polls

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Tens of thousands of voters were turned away from polling stations yesterday in Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections, raising major concerns from independent observers about whether the process was fair.

But the voting passed with relatively few instances of violence, which had marred previous national elections.

Results from the elections for 120 parliament seats were beginning to be released today. At stake is the balance of power in Zimbabwe, which President Robert Mugabe has ruled for a quarter-century in increasingly repressive fashion.

Mugabe has gambled that handpicked observers will call the election free and fair, giving him a measure of legitimacy in the eyes of outside powers, while the opposition -- the Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC -- is hoping to win enough seats to push Mugabe into a power-sharing arrangement.

Elections officials said that by 4 p.m., more than 115,000 people, or more than 7 percent of those waiting to vote, had been prevented from casting ballots at polls across the country, largely because their names were not on voting rolls or they lacked proper identification.

''It's a huge concern. It's unprecedented," Reginald Matchaba-Hove, chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, said of the people turned away at the polls. Matchaba-Hove's independent group sent nearly 7,000 observers to polling stations around the country.

A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he monitored a district in central Zimbabwe in which more than 20 percent of the people were prevented from voting. ''There's definitely some monkey business going on," he said. ''Those turned away tended to be the younger voters."

About 1.4 million Zimbabweans had cast ballots by 4 p.m., the officials said. Polls closed at 7 p.m. Analysts said the numbers apparently reflect a low turnout if voter rolls are accurate. National election officials said the voter rolls contained more than 5.7 million names, judged by some to be inflated by more than 1 million. Observers say inflating the rolls creates the potential for a fraudulent count.

Another issue of concern to monitors is the lack of information on how many Zimbabwean soldiers and diplomats had cast ballots, or in which district their ballots would be counted. ''No one has answered us on how those votes will be counted, or where," Matchaba-Hove said.

The election occurs during an extraordinarily difficult period for most Zimbabweans. More than 70 percent are unemployed, inflation is rampant, a drought has withered fields of corn, and Mugabe's decision several years ago to seize land from white farmers has led to a long period of international condemnation and economic sanctions.

Mugabe, 81, who cast his ballot in a poor Harare township, said the election would help bring international legitimacy to his government and the ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, or ZANU-PF. ''Everybody has seen that they are free and fair elections. There can never be anywhere else where elections can be as free as they have been here," he told reporters.

But opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai charged that ZANU-PF had used repressive policies to rig the elections. ''We're not happy with the way the electoral playing field has been organized. We all agree on all benchmarks that this is not going to be a free and fair election, but . . . I am sure that people will overcome the obstacles," he said after voting in a Harare suburb.

In initial results today, the Movement for Democratic Change won nine of the first 10 parliamentary seats for which votes were counted, electoral officials said. The seats were largely in urban opposition strongholds.

In 2000, the MDC won 57 of 120 seats up for election. ZANU-PF held a strong majority because Mugabe appoints 30 additional members of parliament.

In the national elections in 2000 and 2002, police and members of Zimbabwe's ruling party assaulted thousands of opposition supporters. The calm surrounding the vote yesterday was a marked contrast, and many people praised the professional atmosphere at many polling stations.

''They don't know, really don't know, how I'll vote -- it's my secret," said Francis Murwisi, 30, a short-order cook, in Bindura, a ZANU-PF stronghold about 50 miles north of Harare. In the 2000 parliamentary elections, ZANU-PF won all 10 seats in the district, but even party supporters expressed uncertainty about the outcome this time.

One reason, some said, was the relative lack of violence. ''In 2002, we were forced by the ruling party to carry a party card," said Raymond Mutsoka, 36, a gold miner, after he cast his vote in Batanai, a small village 5 miles south of Bindura. ''They stopped us at roadblocks, and if we didn't have the card, they beat us. This time, no one was asking for your card."

But at a nearby polling station, in the Glendale township, Blessing Nhimba, 25, clutched his right forearm, which was badly swollen. Nhimba, a local MDC youth organizer, said a ZANU-PF supporter had hit him with a steel pipe.