“I will wait until tomorrow to cast my vote,” said Michael Mangena at the Kambuzuma high school polling station in Harare. “I am going to wait.”
That was at noon, and Mangena had been in the queue to vote since 6.30am.
“They don’t have ballot papers for councillors and they said we can’t vote,” Mangena told the FM. “They are trying to frustrate us,” he said as he sipped on an energy drink.
Zimbabweans turned up in their hundreds of thousands on Wednesday morning to cast their votes in key elections to choose a president, MPs and local councillors. By 6am long queues had already formed outside polling stations, scheduled to open at 7am.
But it’s been a day of delays and frustrations.
On Wednesday morning, as people started to line up to cast their ballots, the first problems emerged.
Some voters could not find their names on the voters roll at a polling station in Budiriro and were told to go to an adjacent school. There, too, people were inspecting the voters roll looking for their names.
Taurai Chikopero, who told the FM on Tuesday that he couldn’t wait to vote, didn’t find his name on the roll in Budiriro. “I did not see my name on the voters roll when I checked on the phone,” Chikopero said on Wednesday. He has voted since 2000 — this was the first time his name was not on the roll.
Shakespeare Jengaingga, an elderly Harare resident, was one of the lucky ones — he had voted by 7.10am, one of the first to cast his ballot, and he had the marked index finger to show for it.
As the day dragged on and polling stations remained closed, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) blamed delays on the printing of ballot papers.
In Mufakose, Highfield, Kambuzuma, Glen View and Warren Park in Harare, voting was delayed because there were no ballot papers, the FM found.
At Wadzanai primary school, less than 100m from the Kambuzuma high school polling station, however, voting went ahead.
“People are voting at Wadzanai because it’s a different ward,” Mangena said.
At Kuwadzana, Harare, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa was scheduled to vote at 11am; he managed to do so at 2pm. His main rival, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, voted just before noon in Kwekwe, central Zimbabwe.
According to the ZEC, at least 78% of wards in Harare did not have ballots for councillors. In other provinces, the same problem was reported.
Harare is a stronghold for the opposition, and it is crying foul.
I will wait until tomorrow to cast my vote. I am going to wait
— Michael Mangena
“The very worrying problem … regarding lack of ballot papers and late openings of polling stations continues. We have reports of several polling stations — particularly in Harare and Bulawayo — still to open hours after voting was meant to commence,” said Charles Kwaramba, CCC presidential chief elections agent.
He is not the only one who voiced concern over the delays.
Fabio Castaldo, head of the EU’s election observation mission, said his team noted significant opening delays in about 30% of polling stations. Nevers Mumba, head of the observer mission of the Southern African Development Community, voiced similar concerns.
Kwaramba raised concern over video reports of individuals ostensibly linked to Zanu-PF setting up “exit polls” outside polling stations, “demanding voters give names and ID numbers”. He called this “clear voter intimidation”.
At Mufakose’s Gwinyiro primary school polling station voters were still waiting to vote at 1pm. According to those left in the queue, a sizeable number had left in frustration.
It was the same story at Warren Park secondary school polling station at 2.30pm. The polling station only opened at 3pm when ballot papers arrived.
And voters only started casting their ballots in Highfield after 3pm.
The ZEC has said it will, as a result of the delays, extend voting hours.
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