Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, has claimed he is “winning resoundingly”, as counting of votes in the country’s election continued.
Chamisa said in a 5 am tweet “We now have results from the majority of over 10 000 polling stations. We’ve done exceedingly well. Awaiting ZEC to perform their constitutional duty to officially announce the people’s election results and we are ready to form the next govt.”
There was no confirmation of his claim and the official count will not be announced for several days. However, results from each of 10,985 polling stations are posted in public by officials. Several civil society groups are collating these, though they are not allowed to release full results before the official tally is known.
Lists of results signed by all contesting parties and polling agents were posted outside each polling station after voting ended on Monday.
Soon after casting his vote, incumbent Zanu-PF leader and incumbent president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, said Zimbabweans had never enjoyed such peaceful elections.
Final results were due to be announced by ZEC within four days.
If no candidate wins more than half the votes, there will be a runoff in five weeks, though analysts believe this scenario is unlikely. In 2008, dozens of people were killed before a runoff between Mugabe and the MDC’s founder, Morgan Tsvangirai, who died from cancer in February.
