March 10, 2002	Sunday	Zilhaj 25, 1422

HARARE, March 9: Riot police on Saturday clashed with voters angered by huge polling station queues in Zimbabwe’s election, which the opposition charged were a deliberate tactic to prevent their supporters voting. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, President Robert Mugabe’s toughest challenger since independence from Britain in 1980, accused him with wholesale cheating and called for voting to be extended by two days after Sunday’s scheduled finish.

At least 12 people were injured when police used teargas, rubber bullets and whips on a crowd at a polling station in Harare’s western township of Kuwadzana, witnesses said.

“The riot police came after some of the crowd tried to force their way into the polling station in protest at the slow voting,” one electoral official said.

Witnesses said two people had head wounds and had been bandaged on the scene while others were hurt by whips.

State-run ZBC radio also reported what it called skirmishes at another Harare polling station.

Tsvangirai, who campaigned on Zimbabwe’s crumbling economy, charges that Mugabe has already used violence, special laws and dirty tricks to try to steal the election.

Frustration was mounting across Harare, a stronghold of Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change as dusk approached.

TENSION HIGH: Witnesses said tension was high at polling stations, where tens of thousands of people were still queuing 10 hours after voting began in the two day poll. Voting for the day was due to end at 7pm.

“We have seen people getting very impatient and angry about waiting in queues,” Kare Vollan, head of Norway’s observer team, said.

Tsvangirai told reporters: “We are trying to see if we can get an extension. There is no way we can finish this within two days.” —Reuters