As had been expected, there was an overwhelming turn out of upbeat voters in major urban areas such as Harare, Bulawayo, Kwekwe, Gweru and Mutare. People trekked to polling stations as early as 4am for voting which started at 7am.
According to official figures, there are 3,4 million people registered to vote in urban areas, the opposition MDC's stronghold, as opposed to 2,2 million in rural areas which are dominated by Zanu PF. Even taking into consideration the extra 400 000 expected from the controversial supplementary voters roll, the figures are still heavily in favour of the opposition.
………. There was drama at St Peters Kubatana in Highfield when some people were incensed by the arrival of unpopular war veterans leader, Joseph Chinotimba arrived. At Chikanga Primary School in Mutare, no voting material was available when The Standard visited at around 10am. Polling officials present refused to explain why this anomaly occurred. [End Excerpt]
Zimbabwe -- Heroes of the front line -[Excerpt] Jericho Ngonu and Francis Kufani are marked men. Last week, they were hauled from their homes in the middle of the night by Robert Mugabe's feared National Youth Brigade, beaten savagely with wire piping, then handed over to the police for a night in a fetid cell. Their crime was to have put their names forward as polling agents for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in Zvimba South, the birthplace of the Zimbabwean president. They were limping, bruised but still defiant when I met them in hiding on a farm north of Harare, shortly after they were released from jail. They insisted that the risk of further beatings - or worse - had not deterred them serving as MDC agents at polling stations yesterday - nor would it do so today. [End Excerpt]