Roughly 75 percent of five million eligible voters have cast their ballots in Zimbabwe’s presidential election. The likely choice comes down to two men, neither of which is called Robert Mugabe.
Zimbabweans flocked to the polls in large numbers on Monday, in the first elections since Robert Mugabe was removed from the presidency, a post he had occupied for nearly 40 years.
The winner will not be determined for several days, as the results of the presidential, parliamentary and local elections are due by August 4. A candidate must reach the 50 percent vote threshold to win, otherwise the contest will move to a runoff on September 8.
Zimbabwe’s electoral commission chair Priscilla Chigumba said there was an estimated voter turnout of 75 percent. The figure would be larger than the last election of 2013.
“It is our view that the high voter turnout is indicative of a sound voter education and publicity conducted on a receptive electorate,” Chigumba told reporters in Harare.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had replaced Mugabe and is the presumed front-runner in the race, urged citizens to have patience, as the nation waits anxiously for the preliminary results five days from now.
“Let us remember that no matter which way we voted, we are all brothers and sisters, and this land belongs to us all,” he wrote on Twitter.
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