(dpa) - Voting was proceeding at a slow pace Saturday in Zimbabwe's synchronized presidential, parliamentary and local elections, in which President Robert Mugabe faces an uphill battle to retain his 28-year grip on power.
People queued from the middle of the night in some areas to cast their ballots in an election seen mainly as a vote on the economy in a country where six-figure inflation means you can be a billionaire and broke.
Early voting was generally peaceful, but a reported bomb blast at the home of a ruling party lawmaker in the second city Bulawayo, in which no-one was injured, reflected the high tensions around the polls, being held under maximum security.
Some 5.9 million Zimbabweans are listed as registered to vote in the election in which Mugabe, 84, is seeking another five years as president over Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and former finance minister Simba Makoni, standing as an independent.
Voting started after 7 a.m. (O500 GMT) and were due to end at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) at around 9,000 polling stations nationwide, although the Zimbabwe Election Commission assured anyone still in the queue would be allowed vote, according to South African radio.
A certain amount of chaos had been expected as Zimbabweans are being called on for the first time to simultaneously choose a president, 210-member House of Assembly, 60-seat Senate and 1,958 local councillors.
"So far it's peaceful and everything is alright," Kingsley Mamabolo, head of the South African contingent of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Electoral Observer Mission, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, declining to comment further.
Nerva Ndlovu, a South African-based Zimbabwean who returned home to Bulawayo to vote, said although he had taken just five minutes to mark three ballot slips - he got no ballot paper for the council election - elderly people were taking 15-20 minutes.
"But it's very peaceful. There was no sign of intimidation at all," Nldovu, a supporter of Makoni, said.
But the MDC was already crying foul over several irregularities, including the presence of police officers in polling stations.
Mugabe issued a presidential decree at the last minute to allow police officers inside the stations "to help the illiterate."
"It's really going there to check where you put your X," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told dpa, expressing fears particularly for the impact of the police presence on voters in poor, rural areas, that have in the past been loyal to Mugabe.
The MDC also complained some of its election agents had been chased away by ruling party militia in rural parts of Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland East provinces.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) head, Noel Kututwa, while expressing concern over the police presence, said: "Generally it's going well."
The elections are being held against the backdrop of Zimbabwe's economic collapse, characterized by inflation of over 100,000 per cent, shortages of staple foods, fuel and cash and the flight into exile of around one-quarter of the population of 12 million.
Mugabe's populist policies, including the lawless seizure by ruling party members and cronies of thousands of white-owned farms since 2000, are widely blamed for the situation.
Before the elections, Makoni and Tsvangirai and election watchdog organizations had already raised concerns over the fairness of the electoral process, including the alleged inclusion on the voters' roll of thousands of dead people.
The last three elections since 2000, which Mugabe has won, have been described as flawed by Western observers.
Zimbabwe's army and police chiefs have warned they will crack down on any "threat to national security" after the MDC called for large-scale protests in the event of evidence of rigging.
Mugabe has also warned against any "Kenya-style" protests and vowed the MDC will never govern Zimbabwe.