Police with water cannons deployed in Harare as tensions escalate due to delayed results – Nehanda Radio

Water gun police circulate in Zimbabwe's capital as the country waits for the first official results of Monday's presidential elections

The main opposition claims that the voting results are not displayed outside 21% of the country's polling stations as the law requires, which raises concerns as to a possible vote rigging. Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa said he would lead peaceful demonstrations if the vote proved wrong.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said it did not cheat in the elections, the first since former leader Robert Mugabe resigned under military pressure. The first results of the vote were to be announced at 3 pm local time, but an hour has passed since then.

Chamisa and President Emmerson Mnangagwa expressed optimism about the election results. Previous votes under Mugabe were marked by violence but Monday's vote was peaceful.

15:30

Dozens of Zimbabwean opposition supporters gathered at their headquarters in the capital. won the presidential election despite the absence of official results

Supporters dance to music taken from truck mounted speakers in the offices of the Movement for Democratic Change party, which says he's led his own account .

The atmosphere is calm. Some people quietly discuss informal results circulating on social media, while others openly argue that their political parties won the Monday election, even though the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has not yet published the preliminary results.

He is confident he will do so in this period

The main contenders – President Emmerson Mnangagwa and MDC leader Nelson Chamisa – have published optimistic assessments of how they have done it. made during the election

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Zimbabwe's main opposition claims that the voting results forms are not posted in more than one-fifth of the country's polling stations, as required the law

. he gathered from all over the country show "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Nelson Chamisa won the presidential election. It indicates that 21% of the forms are not displayed in the stations.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is expected to publish the first results of Monday's vote shortly. The elections were the first since Robert Mugabe, the long-time leader, resigned in November under military pressure and the ex-confidant Emmerson Mnangagwa took power

Mnangagwa also expressed optimism about to the results

A Zimbabwean pastor who was prosecuted for leading large-scale anti-government demonstrations while Robert Mugabe was a leader admitted defeat in his attempt to be elected district councilor in the capital, Harare.

Evan Mawarire, who had launched the #ThisFlag protest campaign on social media, congratulated Jacob Mafume, a candidate of an opposition coalition led by the Movement for Democratic Change. Mawarire ran as an independent.

The pastor was acquitted of subversion shortly after Mugabe's resignation following a military takeover in November. The judge who threw the case against him was Priscilla Chigumba, who oversees Zimbabwe's election as head of the electoral commission.

The first election results are expected Tuesday afternoon. President Emmerson Mnangagwa and opposition leader Nelson Chamisa both expressed optimism about the results achieved.

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11:15

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announces that it should start announcing its results. pm (1300GMT) Tuesday

Commission Chief Priscilla Chigumba reports that most of the approximately 11,000 polling stations have completed the counting of votes and that a verification process is underway. She says that "the atmosphere has remained peaceful" across the country and that she has not received any major complaints about how Monday's elections were conducted.

Chigumba says that the electoral commission has five days to publish the final count. She says she is confident that there has been no "deception" and says that the electoral commission will respect the will of Zimbabweans

"We will not steal their choice of leaders, we will not reverse their will, Chigumba says:

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8:30

Zimbabweans await the first results of an election that, hopefully, is going to Bring the country out of economic and political stagnation after decades of government Former Chief Robert Mugabe estimated Tuesday that millions of Zimbabweans had voted peacefully in a process closely monitored by international observers, who did not still announced if

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission says it will publish the final tally within five days.

The two main candidates are President Emmerson Mnangagwa, former Vice President, and Nelson Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who heads a coalition of opposition groups. More than 5.5 million people were registered to vote and the turnout was about 70%. Associated Press