Harare - Zimbabwe confirmed Sunday it will use translucent ballot boxes in this month's polls, not opaque cardboard ones as had been rumoured. There have been persistent rumours that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) might approve the use of cardboard ballot boxes in the March 29 presidential, parliamentary and local government polls.
But ZEC deputy chief elections officer Utoile Silaigwana said he had "never seen" the cardboard boxes being referred to.
"We will not use them. We do not know anything about them. We have never seen these cardboard ballot boxes. We will use the translucent ballot boxes that voters have been using since 2005," Silaigwana told the official Sunday Mail.
The official said ZEC had already started mobilising vehicles and personnel for deployment ahead of the polls, billed as the most interesting Zimbabwe has seen for years.
The polls will pit 84-year-old President Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party against two strong challengers: Morgan Tsvangirai and his opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and former finance minister Simba Makoni, who is believed to be backed by several independent candidates.
Analysts predict that no one presidential candidate will get the 51 per cent of votes required to be declared winner in the first round, meaning a run-off within 21 days is likely.
Tensions are rising ahead of polling, with reports Sunday saying 12 MDC activists were arrested for allegedly carrying banned weapons when they went on a door-to-door campaign to drum up support in Harare's dormitory town of Chitungwiza.
Meanwhile, top ZANU-PF officials have reacted angrily to this weekend's public backing of Makoni by politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa.
Dabengwa, a former minister for home affairs, claimed Saturday he was a "dedicated and staunch" ZANU-PF member but had decided to back Makoni because he and his associates within the ruling party had failed to bring about leadership change.
ZANU-PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa said Makoni and Dabengwa "should be ashamed of what they have done," the Sunday Mail said. "They are abandoning their leader for thirty pieces of silver," Mutasa said.
