Long-time political rivals President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said they cast identical Yes votes in a one-day referendum on a new constitution that curbs presidential powers and is backed by all main political parties.
Mr Mugabe has accused Western governments of supporting efforts to oust him
President Mugabe said he voted Yes to the home-grown constitution to show how Zimbabwe mapped out its own future without outside interference.
“It gives us the right to determine together which way to govern ourselves,” he said.
Mr Mugabe, 89, who led the nation to independence from Britain in 1980, has repeatedly accused Western governments of supporting efforts to oust him.
Mr Tsvangirai, thronged by supporters while voting at a junior high school south of Harare, said a Yes vote marked a new turning point “and one of the most important historical steps” for the southern African nation after years of political and economic turmoil. He said it paved the way for a new chapter of the rule of law.
His supporters who have been killed in political violence over the past decade “will rest in peace because this is the most important stage we have been fighting for,” Mr Tsvangirai said.
“I hope everyone will exercise their vote as a preliminary step to free and fair elections.”
Full scale presidential and parliamentary elections are pencilled in for around July to end a shaky and dispute-ridden coalition government formed by regional leaders after the last violent and disputed national polls in 2008.
There were no immediate reports of violence yesterday after disturbances between rival youth groups on Friday.
Mr Mugabe, voting at a school in western Harare, said he wanted peace to prevail.
“Those who want to fight are allowed to if they are boxers or wrestlers, but to go about beating people in the streets, that’s not allowed,” he said.
Officials said polling was busy in populous districts after voting stations opened at 7am across the country. Small knots of voters turned out early in remote areas and less populated or wealthier suburbs.
The proposed constitution reduces the entrenched powers of Zimbabwe’s president and includes a range of democratic reforms demanded by regional mediators in Zimbabwe’s decade-long political and economic crisis.
The voting day was announced exactly a month ago, and critics say voters were not given enough time to study the constitutional proposals in detail.
About 9,400 voting stations were set up and 12 million ballot papers have been printed. Results are expected within five days.
But Abigail Punungwe, a young mother with a baby on her back in a line at one voting station in Harare, said she had not read the 170-page draft constitution, adding: “but everyone is saying we must vote for it”.
Elections monitors say printed copies were woefully inadequate in the two main local languages. Many rural Zimbabweans do not speak or read English. Monitors also pointed to only 200 braille copies being produced for the country’s 40,000 blind people.
Voting lines over 200 metres long in Harare were tapering off by yesterday afternoon. Cumbersome voters’ lists were not used. The nation has 6.6 million registered voters, but yesterday all Zimbabweans over the age of 18 carrying a valid citizens’ identification document can vote during more than 12 hours of polling.