Johannesburg/Harare - The Zimbabwean capital Harare was coated in an uneasy calm Sunday as vote counting continued in elections, in which the opposition has already claimed victory over longtime authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe. "We have won this election," Tendai Biti, secretary general of the largest faction of the divided Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan Tsvangirai, told a press conference just a few hours after the close of polls. "But they (the government) still might steal it."
The government dismissed the MDC's victory claim as "speculation and lies" that would cause "unnecessary havoc."
Earlier in the week, the country's security chiefs, including the heads of the army and police, had warned the opposition against any unilateral victory claim, setting the scene for a standoff between the MDC and the state.
Four elections were held simultaneously on Saturday - presidential, assembly, senate and local council elections.
Tsvangirai's MDC faction is rushing to announce results before the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) to stave off what it fears will be attempts by the body at rigging in Mugabe's favour.
The ZEC has not yet announced any results but the results are being posted on the doors of individual polling stations, before being sent to the national election centre in Harare to be collated.
Mugabe, who declared himself confident of another five years to add to his 28 years in power, has vowed to accept the wishes of Zimbabweans and promised no cheating.
He was also quoted in newspapers Sunday as saying a runoff vote "won't be necessary," while recognizing it was a constitutional requirement if he fails to take more than 50 per cent of the vote.
Unofficial results showed Tsvangirai's MDC faction making a clean sweep in Harare and taking all but one of 18 assembly and senate seats in the second city of Bulawayo - both MDC strongholds.
The party also claimed to have made inroads in some rural, Shona-speaking areas that were previously ruling Zanu-PF strongholds, including the president's home constituency in Mashonaland.
In the presidential vote, however, former finance minister and ex-ruling Zanu-PF politburo member, Simba Makoni, appeared to have taken votes from Tsvangirai in Bulawayo. With many rural stations yet to report results it was too early to call a winner.
Although there reports of rejoicing in remote areas at apparent MDC wins, there was no sign of rejoicing on the streets of Harare, where some said they were afraid to show their political colours.
The whereabouts of Tsvangirai and Makoni was unknown Sunday, with both reported to have gone into hiding.
Earlier police raided MDC offices at a hotel in Harare, where party members were collating results, but took nothing.
Some 5.9 million voters were listed as registered to vote in the polls, seen as a vote mainly on the economic chaos wrought by Mugabe's populist policies that have resulted in six-figure inflation and widespread food, fuel and drug shortages.
But the voters' roll is in a shambles, leading the MDC to estimate the real number of eligible voters at closer to 3.5 million.
The voting was largely peaceful apart from a bomb blast at the home of a Zanu-PF parliamentary candidate in Bulawayo, in which no- one was injured.
The MDC has already cried foul over several irregularities in the election, including the inclusion on the voters roll of many people, the presence of police stations in polling stations.
Mugabe had issued a last-minute decree allowing police into polling stations "to help" voters.
Western observers were banned from monitoring the election. Regional and African Union observer teams have yet to issue their reports but the Pan-African Parliament observer team has already complained about the 8,450 voters registered on a patch of deserted land in Harare.
