HARARE: Zimbabwean presidential elections are being held on Wednesday (today) across the African country, the incumbent President Robert Mugabe,89, is running for a seventh term, seeking to extend his 33-year rule.
In the presidential elections, that began at 07:00 (05:00 GMT) on Wednesday and will close at 19:00 (17:00 GMT), some 6.4 million people are eligible to cast their ballots at 9,670 polling stations across the African country.
The results will be announced within five days, and if no candidate receives over 50 percent of the votes, a runoff will be held – most likely in September.
The 61-year-old Prime Minister and former trade union leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is facing Mugabe for the third time, has vowed to push Mugabe into retirement after more than three decades in power.
Meanwhile, in a press conference in Harare on Tuesday, Mugabe said he would step down if he lost.
“If you go into a process and join a competition where there are only two outcomes, win or lose, you can’t be both. You either win or lose. If you lose, you must surrender,” Mugabe said.
A spokesman for Tsvangirai’s party, Movement for Democratic Change, said it would accept the election results only if the poll is “free and fair.”
Apart from voting for a President‚ Zimbabweans will also be electing members of Parliament and local bodies.
