Police in Zimbabwe have arrested a member of parliament for the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), on the second and final day of local council elections.

Roy is in the cells along with eight others - he is not hurt but the rest have been badly beaten

Doug Vanderuit MDC member

Friends of the politician, Roy Bennett, said he and several other people were detained in the Chimanimani district in the south-east of the country.

The police said Mr Bennett had been arrested because he refused to vacate his farm, defying a government order given to nearly 3,000 white farmers.

A spokesman for the Electoral Supervisory Committee said the elections had gone smoothly, but the MDC complained that their candidates had been either barred from registering or intimidated from running in about half the wards.

The opposition MDC accused President Robert Mugabe of rigging presidential elections last March and said the ruling Zanu-PF party was cheating again.

Zimbabwe is in the midst of a humanitarian and economic crisis.

Mr Bennett has challenged orders to leave his farm

Six million people - half of the country's population - face food shortages with white farmers being evicted and black farm workers being left without homes or jobs.

Mr Bennett - who has battled orders for him to leave his land - was detained with his wife Heather at a roadblock, his friends said.

"Roy is in the cells along with eight others," said Doug Vanderuit, a fellow MDC member.

"He is not hurt but the rest have been badly beaten."

Election complaints

The MDC had tried to delay the elections, saying 700 of its candidates for the nearly 1,400 positions had been barred from registering or intimidated from running in the polls.

The truth is that the MDC is frustrated at its failure to win the support of a majority of the people of this country

Zanu-PF spokesman

During the weekend elections, it said it had received reports from various parts of the country showing Zanu-PF had stepped up violence to prevent Zimbabweans from voting freely.

"Several MDC candidates and their agents have been blocked from entering the polling stations while some have been assaulted and a few have been reported missing," the MDC said.

Police and electoral officials said they had not received any reports of intimidation and Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party dismissed the charges as "a pack of the usual lies".

"The truth is that the MDC is frustrated at its failure to win the support of a majority of the people of this country," a Zanu-PF spokesman said.

The allegations were also dismissed by Thomas Bvuma, a spokesman for the Electoral Supervisory Commission, who told Zimbabwe state radio the elections were going smoothly and the authorities had not received any complaints.

Results are expected to start coming in late on Monday.