Riot police in Harare townships amid poll tensions

By Cris Chinaka

HARARE (Reuters) - Riot police in armored carriers deployed in two of Harare's opposition strongholds on Monday night as suspicions grew that President Robert Mugabe was trying to rig Zimbabwe's most important election since independence.

A resident of one of the townships said a convoy of riot police in about 20 vehicles moved through the vast area. "There are a lot of patrols here," said the resident, adding people had been told to stay off the normally teeming streets.

More than 48 hours after polls closed, only 66 of 210 parliamentary constituencies had been declared, showing the ruling ZANU-PF one seat ahead of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Two of President Robert Mugabe's ministers lost their seats.

No results have been announced for the presidential vote, in which Mugabe faces the most formidable political challenge of his 28 years in power.

The opposition has accused the veteran leader of delaying the issuing of the results in a bid to steal the election, which Zimbabweans hoped would help rescue a country ravaged by an economic crisis.

"It is now clear that there is something fishy. The whole thing is suspicious and totally unacceptable," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

An independent Zimbabwean election monitoring group forecast Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the largest faction of the MDC, would win the most votes in the presidential poll but not by a big enough margin to avoid a second round.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said its projections giving him 49.4 percent were based on a random sample of 435 polling stations across the country's 10 provinces.

It predicted Mugabe would win 41.8 percent and ruling ZANU-PF party defector Simba Makoni would get 8.2 percent.

Seven European countries and the United States expressed concern over the delay, and called on Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission to quickly release the results, especially for the presidential election.

Electoral Commission chairman George Chiweshe said the slow pace was due to the complexity of holding presidential, parliamentary and local polls together for the first time.

"FAIR AND CREDIBLE"

Mugabe, 84, is under unprecedented pressure from a two-pronged attack by veteran MDC rival Tsvangirai and Makoni, who both blame him for Zimbabwe's ruin.

Zimbabweans are suffering the world's highest inflation of more than 100,000 percent, chronic shortages of food and fuel, and an HIV/AIDS epidemic that has contributed to a steep decline in life expectancy.

And although the odds seemed stacked against Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, analysts believe his iron grip on the country and solid backing from the armed forces could enable him to ignore the results and declare victory.