Voting Underway In Zimbabwe

Millions of Zimbabweans are heading to the polls to vote in the country's first elections since independence in 1980 without the name of long-time leader Robert Mugabe on the ballot.

Polling stations opened at 7am (05:00 GMT) on Monday and will close at 7pm (17:00 GMT).

More than five million Zimbabweans have registered to take part in the landmark elections and pick their next president and members of parliament. A total of 10,985 polling stations have been set up across the country.

Twenty-three candidates, 19 men and four women, are running for the presidency - all for the first time. The figure marks the highest number of presidential hopefuls since the end of white minority rule in the country of 16 million people.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, of the ruling ZANU-PF party, and Nelson Chamisa, of the opposition MDC Alliance, are seen as the top two contenders.

A presidential runoff will be held on September 8 if none of the candidates secures more than 50 percent of the votes.

Official results are expected to be released by Saturday.





Disclaimer: Stories culled and pictures posted on this blog will be given due credit and is not the fault of drifternews.blogspot.com if website culled from misrepresents source of story.