The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) says it is confident of running smooth and credible harmonised elections on Wednesday when Zimbabweans go to the polls to elect a president, Members of Parliament and local government representatives.

ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau said on Monday that the electoral body had learnt lessons from the hiccups of the special vote two weeks ago for security service personnel on duty during polling and had now put in place measures to ensure that voting was conducted smoothly.

The special vote, which was mainly for police officers and other voters who would be on duty on the main voting day, was marred by logistical problems, which left many of the voters unable to cast their ballots.

“I am confident that we will run a credible poll and I have no nightmares at all about this election,” Makarau told the media.

She said by the end of Tuesday, the commission would be fully prepared to conduct the poll. As of Monday, ballot papers had been dispatched to almost all the 9 735 polling stations countrywide.

Makarau said some composite polling stations, made up of more than one serving point, had also been set up to facilitate smoother processing of voters.

“We are anticipating a higher turnout this time around,” she said, while urging Zimbabweans to go to the polling stations early to cast their ballot.

Makarau said 8.7-million ballot papers had been printed, with all the polling stations expected to get a cushion of 35% more than the required ballots.

“We will account for each and every ballot that is going to be used and the accounting will be done at the polling stations,” she said.

Makarau said the ZEC had dispatched copies of the voters’ roll to all the polling stations and had also engaged the Registrar-General to provide candidates with an electronic copy of the voters' roll as required by law.

More than 20 000 local and foreign poll observers have been accredited to observe the elections, while 1 331 journalists have been accredited to cover the polls. Foreign media personnel, at 887, make up the majority of the accredited journalists.

Meanwhile, Makarau warned all political parties against announcing election results, which she said was the prerogative of the commission.

“Only the ZEC can officially announce the results; if anybody does that, they will be going outside the law,” she said.

She said presidential election results would be announced within five days of polling, while those for local government could be announced the same day after polling has closed.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened that his party will announce the results ahead of the ZEC, but President Robert Mugabe on Sunday warned the MDC leader of the consequences of taking the law into his own hands.