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Sibanda, spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change, the main opposition party.
United Nations deputy spokesman Farhan Haq appealed to Zimbabwe “to exercise restraint and reject any form of violence while awaiting resolution of the disputes and announcement of the election results”.
International monitors said the election was conducted in a relatively free environment and was a big improvement over past votes marred by violence and irregularities, although they noted significant problems.
European Union observers said “a truly level playing field was not achieved” in the election, pointing out the “misuse of state resources, instances of coercion and intimidation, partisan behaviour by traditional leaders and overt bias in state media”.
Elmar Brok, head of the EU observer mission, said there were “many shortcomings” in the election, but it was unclear whether they influenced the results.
The Opposition alleged irregularities, saying results were not posted outside one-fifth of polling stations as required by law. MDC leader Chamisa has said outright that his own count shows he won the election, drawing government accusations of inciting violence.
After first indicating it would release presidential vote totals on Wednesday, the electoral commission said it would wait, adding that agents for the more than 20 candidates must verify them first.
“The more the presidential vote is delayed, the more it calls into question the population’s confidence in the election process,” said former Liberian leader Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the lead observer of a US monitoring mission.
While the electoral commission legally has five days from the end of the election to announce results, Western observer groups urged the release of the presidential results as soon as possible. The EU mission questioned why presidential votes were counted first but were being announced last.
Many Zimbabweans looked to the vote as a launching pad for a return to the kind of international acceptance and relative prosperity that the country enjoyed in the first part of the rule of Mugabe, who took office after independence from white minority rule in 1980.
But the violence in Harare seemed to put those aspirations on hold. It was the first time the military was back in the streets since Mugabe’s ouster — at that time, though, they were welcomed by residents as liberators. Yesterday, they came to enforce a crackdown. Chinese actress Fan Bingbing has disappeared from social media amid rumours she is the target of a tax evasion investigation. Fan is usually a prolific user of China’s main microblogging service Weibo, but her account hasn’t been updated since June 2, when she wrote about the work of her charitable foundation. Her boyfriend, actor Li Chen, has not updated his account since July 6. Fan has appeared in dozens of movies and TV series in China, but is best known internationally for her role as Blink in 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. Chinese media reports say neither Fan, her production company nor agent could be reached. Criminal cases can be career-ending for Chinese celebrities because authorities, who have control over what content is released, have ordered offenders blacklisted.