The broad picture from many news sources is that Zimbabwe’s voters braved long lines and an unbelievably creative menu of efforts to disenfranchise them – from chicanery to fraud to bribes to murder – and held the line. Returns are showing Mugabe claiming victory, as forecast, and the opposition crying fraud. How they deal with this fraud is the coming question.

I have this news roundup organized beginning with a backgrounder or The Stage for action; the the Timeline of events; the Foreign Response; and the observed irregularities: Intimidation, Disenfranchisement and Electoral Fraud.

Here is a summary of the news from Zimbabwe:

THE STAGE:

VOICE OF AMERICA:
What is at stake and what Zimbabweans are up against as they make their way to the polls.

THE POST OF LUSAKA: The opposition Tuesday warns it is ready for a peaceful uprising if Mugabe doesn’t give up power willingly. Long list of mismanagement of the Mugabe regime cited.

GUERRILLA NEWS NETWORK: Sad account of the gradual and total destruction of Zimbabwe’s health care system, once the envy of Africa. Recommend a click.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Opposition figures speak of continual beatings from Mugabe thugs over the years.

THE DAILY NEWS: Voters pray for regime change. I’ll let this graf speak for itself:

Unemployment is about 70 percent, inflation still the highest in the Southern Africa Development Community and Z$15 000 are now worth US$l on the parallel market. The health delivery system has virtually collapsed and the educational facilities are in tatters. There is precious little foreign direct investment … and there are four million Zimbabweans living outside their country as economic refugees.

REUTERS: Even if he cheats, Mugabe is unlikely to win Matabeleland province in the south where he is profoundly unpopular. Long list of atrocities described in this story.

TIMELINE:

SABCNEWS: Polling begins peacefully. Take a look at the photo on this story for the voters waiting in lines in rain.

IOL: Long lines at polling stations begin before dawn.

ABC NEWS AUSTRALIA: Voters discuss their aspirations.

REUTERS: Voters brave rain and some come to the polls in donkey carts.

REUTERS: Mugabe shows up in a crisp blue blazer and silk tie in some shantytown to cast his ballot.

FT: Voting largely peaceful but instances of intimidation reported.

REUTERS: Dictator Mugabe praises his own election. Lots of photos with this story.

STUFF-NZ: As of 2 pm, 1.2 million of 5.78 million voters cast ballots. Opponents say 1 million of those are dead people. 94,000 people turned away from the polls. Ballot papers run out in Manicaland province. Tally may take 48 hours.

BBC: Reporters in different parts of the country give eyewitness accounts of voting conditions based on what they see. Few white voters seen in Harare, most have fled the country. Mugabe officials warn voters in Bulawayo that ‘a vote for the opposition is a vote for starvation.’ In Mutare, some dope has people line up by letter of last name – since most Zimbabweans have last names beginning with ‘M’ there’s one long line there and all the others are short. In Masvingo, lines are scarce and lots of soldiers in trucks patrolling around are seen. Recommend a click.

THE TELEGRAPH: Two Telegraph journalists are arrested over credentials.

REUTERS: Mugabe’s government says it will deport the two journos.

AL JAZEERA: Polls close in Zimbabwe for parliamentary elections.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The long slow tally of the votes, not expected to come in until the end of the week, will raise the possibility of fraud.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The opposition takes the lead in early polling results. CNN’s take here.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Results are now pointing to a Mugabe victory.

VOICE OF AMERICA: The vote seems to be divided along urban and rural lines, with rural voters going for Mugabe and city voters going for the opposition. With that one BBC item about soldiers rolling around in trucks intimidating people, I am not convinced it’s just a simple red/blue divide of perspectives.

THE ZIMBABWEAN: The Roman Catholic archbishop reports that people are now praying for Mugabe to die.

ASSOCIATED PRESS: The opposition is crying fraud.

BLOOMBERG: Mugabe claims victory with a two-thirds majority in parliament and 80% of the vote counted.

FOREIGN RESPONSE:

VOICE OF AMERICA: The U.S. does not expect elections to be free or fair.

AFP: The U.S. denounces sharply Mugabe’s food for votes program. The ruling thug famously uses food as a weapon.

UPI: EU officials call the whole thing a sham.

THE DAILY NEWS OF HARARE: The UK Labour party seeks tougher sanctions on Mugabe.

NEWS.COM.AU: Aussies scold each other for not speaking out forcefully enough about democracy in Zimbabwe.

REUTERS: COSATU and other leftists call a protest against Mugabe, who’s evidently abused them, too. Only 300 show up.

BUSINESS DAY: About 10,000 were expected to show up. No reasons given for the low turnout.

VOICE OF AMERICA: South African traditional leaders (tribal chiefs) send election observers to Zimbabwe’s elections.

VOICE OF AMERICA: An ANC youth leader says all will be free and fair in Zimbabwe’s election and who is the West to try to tell Zimbabwe how to run its affairs, anyway, the yahoo added unneccessarily.

NEWS24: South Africa’s communist party chief (they’re not as bad as most communist party chiefs, South Africa’s communist party is one of the better ones) worries about what would happen to the Zimbabwe opposition if Mugabe steals the election.

VOICE OF AMERICA: U.S. State Department, in a preliminary assessment of the election, would only say it was peaceful. Turnout was high in urban areas. Europe plans fresh sanctions against Mugabe.

THE IRREGULARITIES:

== INTIMIDATION:

SABC NEWS: 120 people are arrested for praying in what authorities dub an ‘unauthorized gathering.’

NEWS24: Mugabe police warn voters to leave the polling stations immediately after they cast their ballots – or face arrest.

XINHUA: Mugabe goons block polling station agents from their stations in Njedza and Chingwaru.

NEWS24: Mugabe thugs “indecently assault” a South African church worker. IOL’s account here.

THE TELEGRAPH: A reporter learns of one white woman farmer who returns to her old stead, now confiscated, only to be chased around by Mugabe’s goons. She’d been whipped and jailed before but vowed never to give up. She beheld the ruins of her farm with defiance and sadness. The journo writing this account said it was not easy to take out a camera or admit being a journo in the current conditions. Recommend a click.

NEWS24: The opposition says one of its candidates standing for parliament has disappeared after a police raid the night before election.

METRO: Mugabe forces deny that an opposition candidate has disappeared and say he is in his constituency.

INDEPENDENT: The guy apparently shows up.

MAIL & GUARDIAN: South African news editors lament woeful lack of press freedom in covering Zimbabwe’s election.

==DISENFRANCHISEMENT:

ALLAFRICA: 350,000 black farm workers who were made homeless after the Mugabe land confiscations of white farms are denied the right to vote because they didn’t have “papers.” Recommend a click.

BBC: In London, angry exiles representing 3 million disenfranchised voters protested being excluded from voting and staged a mock vote to protest.

==ELECTORAL FRAUD:

ALLAFRICA: About 1 million of Zimbabwe’s 5.8 million voters are ‘zombie voters,’ meaning dead people.

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Mugabe goons offer polling agents $10,600 amounts of cash to allow ballot box tampering.

NEWS24: Mugabe’s ex information minister now running for office as an independent says there needs to be more than one agent per 3 voting stations in Zimbabwe’s 8,000 polling stations.

VOICE OF AMERICA: The dirty tricks don’t end – everything from wash-off ink for fingers to a whole print shop full of leaflets fakely claiming to voters that the opposition has dropped out of the race. Opposition figures deeply suspicious of international observers, most of whom are cossetted away in expensive Harare hotels. Recommend a click.

THE ZIMBABWEAN: More details on systemic fraud as it is observed in Zimbabwe.