"We are still compiling the figures, but there has been no improvement from yesterday," Remus Makuwaza, elections director for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said.
"Turnout is very low," another opposition official Maxwell Zimuto said, echoing William Nhara, the candidate for the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in the by-election in the capital.
While two parliamentary seats and more than 200 local government seats are being contested in the elections, the vote has failed to excite Zimbabweans.
The ballot poses no challenge to the parliamentary majority of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party and at most will be seen as a mid-term test for the controversial leader, amid an economic and political crisis in the southern African country.
Nhara said he initially expected a turnout of about 12 000 people in a constituency of 37 000 registered voters, but said he had revised his forecast down.
In the 2000 election, 17 000 people voted in the constituency.
"My prediction now is that we might come down to 5 000," Nhara said.
A spokesperson for the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC), Thomas Bvuma, said although turnout had improved slightly at a few polling stations yesterday morning, it was still poor.
Makuwaza attributed the poor turnout country-wide to the fact that most Zimbabweans did not attach great importance to local elections.
"People always measure elections with what they would achieve... and many people don't see the importance of municipal elections," said Makuwaza.
Nhara blamed the low voter turnout to "uncertainty" over the politics of the troubled southern African country.
"People are confused on which way the politics of this country will take.
"We seem not to be getting our politics right," he said.
The local and parliamentary by-elections are taking place at time Zimbabwe is going through its toughest economic and political crises.
The economy is characterised by hyperinflation and shortages of the most basic goods and services, including local bank notes.
On the political front, Zimbabwe's leadership is under international sanctions and travel bans, while major western donors have long frozen their balance of payments support and development aid to the government.
The MDC has refused to accept Mugabe as the legitimately elected head of state alleging widespread intimidation and irregularities in last year's presidential polls.
Talks between the MDC and ZANU-PF to seek an end to the political stalemate broke down last year when the two had only managed to draft an agenda.
The municipal council and mayoral elections are taking place in more than a dozen towns and cities, while parliamentary by-elections are being held in two constituencies.
The independent Zimbabwe Elections Support Network (ZESN) said suspected ZANU-PF supporters in the small, central town of Kadoma had screened voters according to their perceived political affiliation before they entered a local polling station.
Commentators meanwhile attributed the voter apathy to economic hardships and widespread poverty blamed on Mugabe's policies.
At least 75% of Zimbabweans live below internationally defined poverty lines.
Inflation was last month officially running at 399,5% but experts estimate the real rate is at least twice the official figure. – Sapa-AFP.
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