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Tension high as polls open in Zimbabwe

Eager to vote, Zimbabweans began lining up before dawn yesterday for crucial elections in which Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe faces the toughest challenge to his 28-year rule.

The opposition is urging its supporters to defend their votes against an alleged ballot-rigging plot.

Tensions rose on Friday when the military put on a show of force, with soldiers and police in a convoy of armored personnel carriers and water cannon patrolling through downtown Harare and the security chiefs warning against violence.

"It's a big day we've been waiting for. The people have been suffering," said Marjorie Saba, a domestic worker.

With some queues of up to 500, people said they had got in line as early as midnight. But more than a dozen poll stations had not opened by 7:45am, 45 minutes after the scheduled opening. One opened 50 minutes late but turned away the first voter because he was at the wrong station.

There are 9,000 polling stations for a disputed list of 5.9 million voters, but too few in urban opposition strongholds where independent monitors said people would need to be processed at a rate of 22 seconds.

Zimbabweans are voting in a single day for the first time for president, 210 legislators, 60 senators and 1,600 local councilors. Polls were scheduled to close at 7pm and preliminary results are expected by tomorrow.

Mugabe told a final rally on Friday that the vote would show Zimbabweans' opposition to former colonizer Britain, whom he has accused of supporting the opposition.

"Zimbabweans are making a statement against the meddling British establishment," he told about 6,000 supporters in Epworth, an impoverished town outside Harare.

Mugabe called for discipline at the polls despite "provocation from outsiders who are already claiming the elections are not free and fair."

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday: "There are a lot of big question marks hanging over this election in terms of the integrity of the electoral process."

Running against Mugabe are opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 55, who narrowly lost disputed 2002 elections and former ruling party loyalist and finance minister Simba Makoni, 58.

Tsvangirai on Friday urged supporters to stay at polling stations until counting began, to help prevent rigging.

"They would not rig in front of you," he told a rally. "We have won this election already. What's left is for us to defend our vote."

Zimbabwe's security chiefs, however, are firmly behind Mugabe, and the chiefs of police, army, air force, prison service and the intelligence agency told reporters on Friday that the armed forces were "up to the task in thwarting all threats to national security."

"Those who have been breathing fire about Kenya-style violence should be warned," the security chiefs said. Deadly protests erupted in Kenya after December presidential elections so rigged no one knows who won. More than 1,000 people were killed there.
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