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Observers in Zimbabwe have warned of violence if the results of the historic elections held on Monday are disputed.
Millions of people voted peacefully in the first election since Robert Mugabe's withdrawal from power last year. Long lines of voters formed outside polling stations, with turnout reaching 75%.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said that it would start announcing the results of the highly disputed poll from 3:00 pm (1:00 pm GMT) on Tuesday afternoon – although it is not clear whether these will include the overall results of the vote for the president. Voters also elected parliamentary and local representatives.
The final results of the presidential election are expected by August 4th.
"The fear is that people are unhappy to the point where they go to the streets, and then there is," said Andrew Makoni of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZENS), a coalition of civil society groups that have deployed 6,500 observers during the ballot and followed all preparations.
"Our peaceful environment before and during the voting process could be tainted with violence after the announcement of the results."
The leader of the # Opposition, Nelson Chamisa, claimed on Tuesday morning that he "was gaining resoundingly." 19659002] The election pitted Chamisa, 40, a lawyer and pastor whose only experience of power was a ministerial post in a coalition government several years ago, against Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, Mugabe's assistant and leader of the ruling Zanu-PF party, both represent radically different ideologies and political styles, as well as generations. 9659002] Chamisa said in a 5h tweet that the Movement for Democratic Change had "done very well", according to the results of a majority of polling stations.
There was no confirmation of his claim. However, civil servants are obliged by the Constitution to publish the results of each of the 10,985 polling stations in public. Several civil society groups bring them together, although they are not allowed to publish the complete results until the official count is known
<img class = "gu-image" itemprop = "contentUrl" alt = "People watch the results placed outside a polling station in Harare." Harare station Photograph: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / AP
Activists said the results were still too close to the call, but the general trend seemed to be in favor of opposition.
Makoni said the ZENS was working to confirm reports from activists in the field that up to a fifth of polling stations had not released any results. This would mean that results of up to one million votes can not be verified independently.
Mnangagwa tweeted Tuesday morning that he was "delighted with the strong participation and engagement of the citizens up here".
He added: "The information of our representatives on the ground is extremely positive! Waiting patiently for official results according to the constitution."
Pre-election polls gave Mnangagwa, a former leader espionage called the "crocodile" for his reputation for ruthless ruse, a slight lead over Chamisa, a brilliant if sometimes
The first results of polling stations observed by the Guardian showed that Chamisa won by large margins in urban bastions and parts of the south-west strongly anti-government.
Zanu-PF's support has historically been most profound in rural areas, particularly in central Mashonaland, where more than two-thirds of the 17 million inhabitants of Zimbabwe live. People in the far north-east seem to have largely voted for the government
The claims of an imminent Chamisa victory are consistent with a multi-week strategy that sought to put Zanu-PF on the defensive and to render the
Zimbabwean election officials declared that they had not seen any evidence of faking or cheating while international observers told the Guardian that the elections were "normal".
If no candidate wins more than half of the votes, there will be a runoff in five weeks, although analysts believe that this scenario is unlikely. In 2008, dozens of people were killed before a second round between Mugabe and MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai, who died of cancer in February
Another possibility is to form a coalition government if the result is very close. There are widespread fears among activists and opposition supporters that the government or the powerful military will refuse to yield power if they are defeated.
Although the campaign was free from systematic violence that tainted previous polls, the MDC repeatedly claimed to have been embarrassed by a bad electoral role, intimidation of voters and surrender to party voters in power. Diplomats in Harare say that "the rules of the game have not been leveled."
ZENS also found evidence of significant differences in the registration rates of rural and urban voters, and old and young, Makoni said. Opposition is more popular among a younger population in towns and villages where, according to observers, registration rates were lower.
The MDC has repeatedly accused the electoral commission of bias, with many allegations backed by many independent analysts.
Zimbabwe's leaders know that a fraudulent election would prevent the country's reintegration into the international community and would deny it the huge bailout needed to prevent economic collapse.
Nearly four decades of Mugabe's rule left Zimbabwe's economy, rising unemployment and the collapse of infrastructure. Mnangagwa emphasized foreign investment and "unity" during the campaign.
For the first time since Zimbabwe acceded to independence in 1980 after a brutal guerrilla war against a white supremacist regime, Mugabe was not on the ballot. On Sunday, the former president said he would not vote for his former party, Zanu-PF, or the current president, and approved Chamisa.
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