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- Finding a late-night drink in Harare was hard on Thursday, as police advised bars and restaurants to close early.
- The Citizens Coalition for Change, popular in the capital, has claimed a comfortable lead in the presidential election.
- The ruling Zanu-PF has been quiet - but civil society groups tabulating votes independently were raided.
Bars and restaurants closed early in Harare on Thursday night, as Zimbabwe steered toward another disputed election.
"We were instructed to close early by the cops. I think it's their way of trying to keep the streets calm, but to be honest, I don't see people rioting unless a CCC victory is met with violence," said a restaurant manager in the capital.
Some of those out on the town feared that the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) would see a resounding victory - and that violence would follow, if not from the state directly, then from groups supporting the ruling Zanu-PF.
That the election will be disputed seems all but inevitable.
The CCC has consistently raised a range of issues it said amounted to attempts to steal the election, but that it was winning the most important race anyway.
"We're leading comfortably in the presidential election and doing well in the parliamentary election," said the CCC's newly appointed spokesperson, Promise Mkhwananzi, in a late-night briefing to the media.
READ | Zimbabwe votes: 39 election activists arrested for preparing projections on poll outcome
The party's candidate for president, Nelson Chamisa – who has himself claimed "a decisive win" – was ready to form an inclusive government, said Mkhwananzi.
Zanu-PF has been silent on claims of rigging, and has been largely silent on results too.
In the meanwhile, police arrested 39 staffers from civic society organisations, mainly the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and the Election Resource Centre (ERC) in a series of raids.
The police claimed the activists had set up an elaborate strategy to announce results before the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) did so.
In the 2018 elections, ZESN tabulated the vote – and it had been invited to do so again by the ZEC, in order to dispel any suggestion of improper counting.
"Listen, ZESN, because you did that in 2018, can we ask you to set up a panel of 10 [civil society organisations] and come up with your own parallel voter tabulation, so that in 2023 you can tell us: 'ZEC, we have all the [local polling station result sheets], the figures are mathematically correct, or mathematically incorrect,'" ZEC chairperson Priscilla Chigumba said at a stakeholders meeting last year.
If there is no clear winner in the presidential race, a run-off election will be held on 2 October.
The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
