Phone service already was iffy because of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, but landline and mobile circuits have been virtually paralyzed as voters try to call each other seeking information about Saturday's election.

"This has been the cell phone and text message election," Ephraim Choto, a Harare accountant, said Wednesday as people angrily complained about the trickle of official results.

Repeated attempts to get phone calls through were cut off with beeps, "network busy" signals or just dead silence.

"It's frustrating not to be able to communicate and you just throw up your hands in despair," Choto said.

He said relatives across the country who saw results posted outside local polling stations had called or sent text messages to compare notes.

The biggest opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, said it had thousands of poll agents and supporters texting in results. Party members also were equipped with camera phones or digital cameras to photograph results displayed at voting stations.

In downtown Harare, people crowded around parked cars with radios turned on so they could monitor the latest official results announced on state radio.

"I can't see why it's taking so long. Last time we had all the results in a day or two. It stinks," said one women, who gave her name only as Ziyambi.

Some in the crowd around one car speculated that the delay was a ploy to portray a close race between the opposition and President Robert Mugabe's longtime ruling party.

"It's been crazy. My phone hasn't stopped with friends calling in from all over the country," businessman Thomas Bute said as he walked past a car with radio blaring.

Well-to-do Zimbabweans with computers relied on specialized Web sites for tallies compiled by independent monitors and the main opposition party.

Only about 30,000 Zimbabweans own satellite television dishes. One Harare family asked a relative in Britain to listen to world broadcasts about Zimbabwe and text them results reported by international media.

"My uncle got through from London yesterday and held his phone to the radio news there for us to listen to," said Peter Jampies, a car mechanic.