Harare – Zimbabwe will use 5,000 recently acquired generators as a back-up power supply at polling stations during national elections on March 29, President Robert Mugabe was reported Wednesday as saying.
Zimbabwe is suffering from chronic power shortages, which could disrupt voting.
But at a rally in Gokwe in the Midlands province on Tuesday, Mugabe said generators brought into the country recently for the country's new black farmers would be used on polling day before being distributed.
"Polling stations will be provided with generators to cover for possible disruption from power cuts to enable people to cast their votes until 7 pm next Saturday," the state-controlled Herald daily quoted Mugabe as telling supporters at the rally.
There will be 11,000 polling stations set up countrywide when Zimbabweans go to the polls in less than two weeks. For the first time Zimbabweans will be required to cast four simultaneous ballots: for a new president, a member of parliament, a senator and local councillor.
Some independent observers have predicted that the process could be chaotic in places like Harare, where they estimate there are too few polling stations in the event of a massive voter failure.
