Zimbabwean vote fraught with long lines, hostilities - 20 vote per hour--[Excerpt] The main reason for the slow pace Saturday appeared to be too many voters and not enough stations, observers said. The government reduced the number of stations in urban areas, where opposition is higher, and increased them in the countryside, where Mugabe's backing runs strong.
Between seven and 20 people were voting per hour in many of the 167 polling stations in Harare, the capital and an opposition stronghold. More than 5,000 people are registered to vote in each polling station, and thousands stood in line at most of them Saturday.
Polling officials at one Harare station took a two-hour lunch, despite raucous complaints from voters. Observers reported officials asking voters numerous questions and slowing balloting.
Some stations stayed open after the official closing time of 7 p.m. Saturday to accommodate voters already in line, while others closed because they lacked electricity.
People in line at the polls went home, got blankets and started bedding down to sleep in line so they wouldn't lose their place for the second day of voting today.
Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, political science professor at the University of Zimbabwe who waited in line for 11 hours, said voters were not giving up.
"I have not seen such determination in my life, and they are staying put and the mood is quite jovial," he said by mobile telephone from a Harare suburb.