(Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwean electoral officials began counting ballots in the first vote of the post-Robert Mugabe era that opinion polls show is too close to call.

With results expected to start trickling from Monday night, the focus now shifts to whether the vote was credible -- a key pillar needed to rebuild the southern African nation’s international reputation and economy that was laid to waste under Mugabe’s 37-year rule. After a mostly peaceful contest, the success of the election will be determined by whether rival parties accept the result, with the main opposition already having complained the odds are stacked against it.

While voting officially ended at 7 p.m. after a day market by long, snaking queues in the capital, Harare, and other centers, some polling stations remained open to allow all those who’d lined up to cast their ballots. Under Zimbabwean law, results must be announced by Aug. 4. More than 5.6 million people registered to vote for the president, 350 lawmakers and local government representatives.

“The people wanted to vote, they were in a very good mood to vote in most cases,” Elmar Brok, chief observer for the European Union’s observer mission, told reporters in Harare. While voting proceeded smoothly in some areas, in others it was “totally disorganized,” and it was unclear whether this was a coincidence or bad organization, he said.

All you need to know about Zimbabwe’s elections

The front-runners for the presidency are the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, Mugabe’s one-time deputy and successor, and his main rival Nelson Chamisa, 40, a lawyer and church pastor who heads the Movement for Democratic Change. The MDC’s campaign has made headway over the past two months, tightening the race “significantly,” and if that trend continued victory could go either way, opinion polls conducted by research company Afrobarometer show.

The next ruler will have to administer an economy in meltdown after two decades of misrule and corruption under Mugabe, who the ruling party forced to resign in November, and a broke Treasury that’s unable to service its loans or take out new ones. That will leave little scope to improve government services, rebuild crumbling transport links and meet a plethora of other election pledges.

“Zimbabwe’s economy requires commercial bridge loans, donor support, relief on its huge dollar-denominated debt and, ultimately, an International Monetary Fund program,” Exotix Capital said in an emailed research note. “A peaceful, free and fair election that is universally accepted as credible by foreign observers and establishes a strong enough political mandate domestically to commit to difficult fiscal cuts is the ideal outcome.”

International Observers

More than 6,100 local and international observers were accredited to scrutinize the vote. There were no immediate reports of violence, said Andrew Makoni, chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, an association of 34 civil rights and religious organizations.

“It’s the best election I have seen in Zimbabwe,” said Ishmael Tsopotsa, 35, a metalworker who waited just a few minutes to vote in a tent on a dusty field in Mbare, a poor area of Harare. “No one is complaining. The results are going to be perfect.”

The MDC was able to access rural districts that were once no-go areas, but it’s still skeptical the election will be fair. Its complaints include that the voters’ roll contains the names of dead and underage people, controls over ballot papers are inadequate and the electoral commission is biased in favor of the ruling party -- allegations the body denies.

Mnangagwa has insisted the election will be credible.

“People finally got to say who they want, what they want,” said Elton Ashely, 23, a student who served as a polling agent for the MDC in Mbare. “Now we need the final count from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. We just hope they will do the right thing.”

--With assistance from Michael Gunn.

To contact the reporters on this story: Desmond Kumbuka in Harare at dkumbuka@bloomberg.net;Brian Latham in Harare at blatham@bloomberg.net;Godfrey Marawanyika in Harare at gmarawanyika@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net, ;Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Paul Richardson, Mike Cohen

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.