He was being held in Bulawayo central police station last night. Police gave no reason for the arrests, but Mr Ncube has previously been charged with treason. The MDC legal spokesman, David Coltart, said: “We have all been ensuring the safety of our families, and Mr Ncube’s carried on into Botswana. As far as we know, that was what he was doing.”He added: “Of course, we are worried about action against our leaders. It is obvious that Zanu-PF is desperate, that Mr Mugabe could face defeat, and clamping down hard on the opposition is a classic response. It would make sense for us to have a voice in the world were our leaders to be detained, but it is speculation that that might be what Mr Ncube was doing.”Mr Tsvangirai yesterday accused Mr Mugabe of systematically using violence and the disenfranchisement of “multitudes” of potential voters in efforts to steal the election.”If those thousands of people are not allowed to vote, this is a stillborn election,” he said. He said: “They may want to arrest me and, at worst, kill me but they will never destroy the spirit of people to reclaim their power.”Four US diplomats, two of whom were election observers, were also detained near Chinhoyi, north-west of Harare, yesterday morning.

They were released after several hours.Scores of MDC election agents and supporters have been arrested in the three days since voting began and the party claims its observers were driven from 43 per cent of rural stations and some counting centres. The MDC leader won a High Court extension of the poll on Sunday night because of long delays in voting, widely slated by civil society groups as well as international observers.Yesterday, the government defied the court, agreeing only to reopen polling stations in Harare and its sprawling southern satellite, Chitungwiza.State radio reported the Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, saying it was impossible to comply countrywide as, in some areas, polling had closed and ballot boxes been returned. It then blocked voting for five hours, only opening stations around noon.Yesterday, the government announced figures showing mass voting in Zanu-PF strongholds and far fewer people casting ballots in MDC areas. Jonathan Moyo, Minister of Information, denied all allegations of problems with the election.

He said: “It is common in this part of the world for people who are losing an election to allege fraud.” Vote-rigging claims Ruling-party militants have been accused of assaulting voters and observers, and of other voting irregularities during the three days of polling in Zimbabwe. An umbrella group, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Non-government Organisation Forum, has compiled the following list. The government denies wrongdoing.Voters and observers assaulted* A local election observer, Joseph Dladla, was attacked at a polling station in Bulawayo by a group of ruling-party militants who tied his hands behind his back and beat him with iron bars.* Local election observers were rescued by Commonwealth monitors in Centenary after an attack by ruling-party militants.* Police attacked voters and fired tear gas at two Harare polling stations, prompting voters to flee.Interference with voting* Reports of bogus polling stations being set up and helicopters flying ballot boxes in and out of Gokwe North. Opposition representatives cleared from the area and several arrested.* Ninety-two per cent of voters at a polling station in Bulawayo South turned away, even though their names were on the list of registered voters.* Polling agents abducted from polling station in Muzarabani. * Ruling-party militants intimidated voters and threatened violence as they invaded polling stations in Karoi area.* Ruling-party militants forced people to vote. Large number of voters processed very quickly in Mudzi.* After lines barely moved at the Haig primary school in Harare, disgruntled voters crashed through the gates and forced their way into the polling station.* Fewer than 35 people an hour being processed at a congested polling station in the Harare township of Kuwadzana.

* Two polling stations closed overnight and moved to Shurugwi. Farmers arrested* In rural town of Banket, 11 farmers arrested for unknown reasons They have reportedly been denied food and water.. The partly-dismembered body of a British teenage student was recovered from a Kenyan lake yesterday, apparently confirming that she had been attacked by crocodiles. The company said Ms Nicholls, from Barnet, north London, and her friends went swimming in the volcanic lake only after local hotel staff assured them it was safe. They had also read in the Rough Guide to Kenya that it was a “pleasant place to swim”.But crocodile conservation experts in Kenya warned that the number of local people killed by crocodiles throughout the country was increasing and no lake could be guaranteed safe. Ms Nicholls went to Kenya at the beginning of February for the four-and-a-half month conservation and community development expedition.