The opposition candidate in a crucial Zimbabwean parliamentary byelection said he was arrested and then released by police yesterday in the Bindura mining town north-east of the capital, Harare.
"I have been released after being detained by police for almost two hours. There were no charges laid against me," Mr Elliott Pfebve, a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidate, said.
The police had earlier accused him and 12 MDC supporters of contravening the electoral law by waving their open palms - a party slogan - at people waiting to cast their ballots at a Bindura polling station, Mr Pfebve said. Police declined to comment on the allegations.
Earlier, the MDC reported that 21 young party supporters were missing after having been abducted, apparently by supporters of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF, on Saturday evening.
"The youths are believed to have been taken to a ZANU-PF torture camp . . . A verbal report of the incident was given to Bindura police, who refused to open up a docket," the MDC said in a statement.
An officer at Bindura police station said police had not received any reports of the alleged kidnapping.
The Bindura seat fell vacant when the Deputy Youth and Gender Minister, Mr Border Gezi, was killed in a car accident in April.
The by-election pits Mr Elliott Manyika of ZANU-PF against Mr Pfebve, a local businessman who lost to Mr Gezi in the June 2000 national election.
The vote in Bindura is seen as a key test of President Mugabe's chances of winning a new sixyear term in a presidential election due next April. Some 56,000 people are eligible to vote in the two-day by-election which ended last night. Counting is expected to start today.
Bindura, 55 miles north-east of Harare, has been the scene of violent clashes between supporters of Mr Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the MDC in the last few weeks.
The MDC says its leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, and senior party members were shot at and stoned last weekend as they drove to a rally in the town.
Analysts say a ZANU-PF defeat in one of its traditional strongholds would be a major blow ahead of next year's presidential vote, expected to be a two-horse race between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai, a former trade unionist.