As Zimbabweans were called back to vote in 40 wards affected by delays during Wednesday's election, police have arrested 41 civil society activists they accused of planning to illegally announce results on Thursday.
Both developments were likely to dent the credibility of the election in a country where the ruling ZANU-PF party has been in power for 43 years and is accused by opponents and analysts of using state institutions to rig elections in its favour.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa was under pressure to deliver a clean election from foreign lenders and donors who have long shunned Zimbabwe due to allegations of ZANU-PF's economic mismanagement, human rights abuses and electoral fraud.
Mnangagwa's main challenger is the same as in the previous election: lawyer and pastor Nelson Chamisa, 45, of the Citizens Coalition for Change, who says he will resist any attempts by ZANU-PF to manipulate the election to stay in power.
The government and the electoral commission have said the election would be clean. The police on Thursday said they had detained 41 people and seized cell phones, laptops and other electronic equipment during raids on four locations in Harare following a tip-off concerning "subversive and criminal activities".
"The equipment was being used to unlawfully tabulate election voting statistics and results from polling stations throughout the country.
“These figures were being supplied by some observers and political party agents," said police spokesperson Paul Nyathi.
The police named some of the organisations targeted as the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Election Resource Centre and Team Pachedu - all well-known civil society groups that had said they were monitoring the vote in the interests of democracy. Roselyn Hanzi, director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said in posts on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that the activists were being detained without access to lawyers and had not been allowed to make any calls.
Zimbabwe’s political opposition and independent analysts have long accused the police of partisan conduct, with opposition rallies often being banned or dispersed and figures critical of the government arbitrarily arrested. The police reject the allegation of bias.
After a significant number of polling stations in Harare and Bulawayo were hit by hours of delays on Wednesday, Mnangagwa ordered that voting should resume on Thursday in 40 wards, less than 1% of the total national number.
The electoral commission had blamed Wednesday’s delays on the late printing of ballot papers caused by court challenges, giving no further details.
Eldred Masungure, a lecturer in political science at the University of Zimbabwe, said the confusion would jeopardise the integrity of the election and of the electoral commission.
“In the affected wards, we witnessed what amounts to an institutional disaster.That injury has been addressed somewhat but not everyone will have the time nor the resources to vote today.”
Parliamentary results had been expected to trickle in on Thursday with the presidential result coming later, though well before a five-day deadline. It was unclear whether that schedule would be affected by the extended voting.