Intimidation likely to force turnout in Zimbabwe election

The leader of the opposition said the election is a fraud.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s one-candidate presidential runoff is already a footnote, with the world looking beyond today’s electoral charade to how longtime leader Robert Mugabe can be pushed toward real democracy.

Mugabe — who at the 11th hour told a campaign rally Thursday he was willing to talk to the opposition — is expected to orchestrate a mass turnout, with anyone who tries to stay home subject to attack.

Nigeria joined the chorus of nations in Africa and the West calling for the vote to be postponed, saying Thursday it was doubtful a credible election could be held. It said an observer mission for a West Africa bloc led by a former Nigerian leader had been recalled from Zimbabwe.

The 84-year-old Mugabe has shown little interest in talks with Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change, and his government had scoffed at the opposition leader’s call Wednesday to work together to form a transitional authority.

But at a campaign rally Thursday, Mugabe said: “We remain open to discussion with the MDC.” Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said that did not indicate a softening toward the opposition, however, and any contacts could only take place after today’s vote.

Mugabe also told the crowd he would be going to Egypt, where a meeting of African Union heads of state is to be held Monday — presumably to attend as a victorious re-elected president.

Tsvangirai announced Sunday he was withdrawing from today’s vote because state-sponsored violence against his Movement for Democratic Change had made it impossible to run. He then fled to the Dutch Embassy for safety.

Speaking to the BBC World Service from inside the embassy, Tsvangirai said he expected voters would be forced to the polls today.

He told his supporters not to resist if militants from Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party or government soldiers force them to go to the polls.

“They should go. If they even vote for ZANU-PF, if they even vote for Mugabe, what does that change?” he said. “It makes no difference because the vote is a fraud.”

Mugabe supporters were intimidating voters, warning them to turn out in large numbers to give Mugabe a landslide win, Kubatana quoted residents as saying.

It said anyone without indelible ink stains from polling stations on their fingers would be seen as boycotting the vote in support of Tsvangirai’s withdrawal.

Mugabe officials were also demanding voters write down the serial numbers of their ballot papers so their votes could be checked later, and village elders said they would log the names of voters at polling stations to cast their ballots, and voters who didn’t show up would be punished.SClBSClBSClBSClBSClBSClBSClBSClBSClBSClBSClBSClBIndependent human rights groups say 85 people have died and tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes, most of them opposition supporters.