Police in Zimbabwe said Tuesday they had arrested five election officials for allegedly tampering with votes in the disputed 29 March presidential poll. The five, from three provinces, allegedly removed a total of 4,993 votes for President Robert Mugabe, and were being charged with criminal abuse of duty. The veteran leader, 84, is disputing the outcome of the presidential poll, and has petitioned the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to withhold the results until irregularities discovered were probed. The opposition, on the other hand, is claiming victory, and has counter-petitioned the High Court to force ZEC to release the poll results. “We are still carrying out investigations. The arrests arose from inconsistencies between figures recorded at polling centres, constituency centres and those which were forwarded to the national command centre,” police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said. “The suspects are currently being prosecuted through the courts in their respective areas,” he said. The delay in releasing the election results is building up political tensions in the country, where both the army and police have been placed on alert. The High Court was Tuesday expected to rule whether or not to hear the opposition application on urgent basis.
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