Officials began counting votes on Tuesday in Zimbabwe's bitter presidential election battle between President Robert Mugabe and opposition challenger Morgan Tsvangirai.
In Harare before 10:30 am IST, reporters saw police start to transport ballot boxes from polling stations to counting centres where votes will be verified and then counted.
All of Zimbabwe's 120 parliamentary constituencies, each with one counting centre, were expected to conducted similar exercises. The final result is expected early on Wednesday, information minister Jonathan Moyo said.
Voting finally ended on Monday evening after it was extended in the pro-opposition capital by a day to compensate for massive queues at polling stations on Saturday and Sunday that prevented tens of thousands of people from casting ballots.
Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said that the delays were a deliberate ploy by the ruling Zanu-PF to diminish the anti-Mugabe vote.
By contrast, there were so many polling stations in rural areas -- where Zanu-PF says Mugabe is strongest -- that voting at many was completed by Saturday night.
Moyo told a news conference on Monday that the ruling party's assessment was that the election had been exemplary.
On Monday night the high court refused an opposition bid to prolong the vote further.
Registrar-general Tobaiwa Mudede said that about three million eligible voters were thought to have voted, calling it a good turnout.
The precise size of the electorate has not been announced since it includes an unspecified number of late-registered voters in addition to an earlier total of 5.6 million.
Zimbabwe has 13 million people.
Bureau Report
