Voting in the presidential, parliamentary and local elections has begun in Zimbabwe amid beefed-up security measures by the authorities after a major opposition demonstration in the country's capital two days ago, the African press has reported.
The authorities are afraid of possible provocations by radical opposition activists, the reports note.
The nation's president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who previously had won the vote in the summer of 2018, said that he would once again achieve the same results.
If none of the candidates gets past the 50-percent-plus-one-vote threshold in the first round, a run-off will be held on October 2.
During the parliamentary elections, both chambers are re-elected. The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party (ZANU–PF), led by Mnangagwa, has set its goal of maintaining a parliamentary majority.
Groups of observers, including those from the Southern African Development Community and the European Union, have arrived in Zimbabwe to monitor the elections.