Two things seem clear. Firstly, Robert Mugabe was most likely soundly beaten in Zimbabwe's elections. Secondly, he won't give up power without a fight.
Official results from the weekend elections - which combined presidential, parliamentary and local polls - are yet to be released by the state-run Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. As the Daily Telegraph and others note, the longer the delay, the greater the speculation the results are being rigged.
According to unofficial figures compiled by independent observers outside polling stations cited in both the Financial Times and Guardian, Mugabe won 36% of the vote against 55% for Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Despite a plethora of indications Mugabe has lost "the official silence from Harare, the capital, was deafening", the Times says from the country.
The Independent fills its front page with a picture of one polling station result paper showing Tsvangirai winning almost four times as many votes as Mugabe. The "writing was on the wall" for the president, it says.
In a column for the paper, Basildon Peta, a journalist formerly jailed by the Mugabe regime, writes that he is "convinced the end has finally come for the Zimbabwean president after 28 years of misrule, unbridled corruption and shameless cronyism". But he warns: "It is unlikely to be a smooth transition."
The Guardian quotes one Harare churchgoer, George Murangari, expressing the same fear.
We want to believe, but can't quite. We know he's lost, but we can't say he's lost until he admits it. Do you think he's just going to give up? If you do, you don't know Mugabe.
The Zimbabwean, an independent paper run by London-based exiles, says there is increasing speculation about a possible coup, with considerable activity seen around the main defence ministry building and reports of an emergency meeting of top officers.
Tension is increasing and fears are already mounting that the people's voice may be sacrificed for the interests of a few ambitious Army generals.
Now is the time for other nations to speak out and demand that Mugabe steps down, the Telegraph says in its main editorial.
This includes China, Zimbabwe's main economic guarantor; and it includes South Africa, whose ANC rulers, whether from anti-colonial solidarity or from a sneaking admiration for their neighbour's authoritarianism, have so far been shamefully restrained in their criticism.
The Times agrees, arguing that the international community needs to start speaking out sooner rather than later.
There is every reason to conclude that this count will be freer and fairer the higher Mr Mugabe calculates the price of stealing it to be. Now is not the time to be shy.
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