Zimbabweans vow to wait as long as it takes to vote

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- A Zimbabwean judge on Sunday ordered the government to extend voting by one day in the most bitterly contested presidential election in the country's history, as lines hundreds-deep snaked from polling booths long after the voting deadline passed.

Reaction to the judge's ruling -- which the government immediately said it would appeal -- was erratic. Some polling stations in the capital of Harare continued to process voters already in line, while police closed others.

Confusion also surrounded whether voting would continue Monday, as directed by the court order.

President Robert Mugabe is facing his strongest challenger since Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 in Morgan Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader who has promised to transform the nation. Most election observers believe high turnout benefits Tsvangirai, and that that is reason the government is seeking to cut off the voting.

Opposition officials said they had won a voting extension from Judge Ben Hlatshwayo for the entire country. Justice Minister Patrick Chinimasa told opposition lawyers that he would launch an urgent appeal to the Supreme Court Sunday night to reverse the lower court's ruling, but it was not expected to rule until Monday.

Chased away voters

About an hour after the ruling, 60 riot police charged into the Glen Norah polling station in Harare, chasing away between 2,500 and 3,000 people waiting to vote, said an opposition observer, who said he was too frightened to give his name. The police locked the polling station and then moved into the street, threatening anyone who approached the station.

Just as the opposition was announcing the judge's decision to extend the voting, election official Tobaiwa Mudede said there would not be an extension and that by noon Sunday 2.5 million of Zimbabwe's 5.6 million registered voters had already cast ballots.

"It is not our wish, or intention, to have an extension," Mudede said.

Voters throughout the capital vowed not to leave until they had a chance to vote.

After the 7 p.m. closing time in one Harare township, Budiriro, several thousand voters waited in a slow-moving line as a half-dozen riot police with bayonets on their rifles patrolled the crowd.

Precinct presiding officer Priscilla Mufunba said the station would stay open until everyone in line had voted, but lamented that "as long as we are open, they will never stop coming."

At a voting station in Kuwadzana, outside of Harare, polling officials began sealing ballot boxes, saying they were tired and would return Monday morning. But before the crowd of 1,000 people was told, more than 60 riot police arrived and ordered voters waiting in line to leave.

The crowd groaned and booed, but most people quietly dispersed.

"They told us to come back tomorrow, but this is part of rigging," said M. Sithole, as he turned to go home.