HARARE, Zimbabwe — Bowing to a government campaign of violence and intimidation, Zimbabweans voted Friday in a one-man election that is almost certain to hand another five-year term to President Robert Mugabe.
As gangs of muscled youths ordered people to polling stations and threatened voters with beatings or death if they didn’t have red ink on their fingers — evidence that they had cast ballots — Mugabe prepared to claim victory in a race that much of the world has declared a travesty.
His rival, the popular opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who won the first round but fell short of an absolute majority, pulled out of the presidential runoff last Sunday after dozens of his supporters were killed in state-sponsored attacks.
Mugabe, who has ruled the southern African nation for nearly three decades, has vowed not to cede power whatever the result.
Although turnout was low, according to observers, the early-morning headline in the state-run Herald newspaper was “ZANU-PF gears for victory,” referring to Mugabe’s all-powerful ruling party.
“Suspected ZANU-PF supporters are moving door to door, calling on all registered voters to go and vote. This is happening in a number of places,” said Rindai Chipfunde Vava, the director of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, an independent observer group.
Trying to pump up turnout for an election that the United States and many nations have called illegitimate, ruling-party youth militias warned voters that they would be inspected Friday for red ink on their left pinkie fingers, stamped by poll workers to prevent people from voting more than once.
“People are just voting so that the troubles can be over. If you vote for ZANU-PF, you don’t fear,” said a 28-year-old secretary who cast her ballot for Mugabe in Glenview, a poor suburb of Harare, the capital. Like many voters, she asked that her name be withheld for her safety.
Tsvangirai’s name remained on the ballot because he didn’t withdraw within 21 days of the vote as required by law. He issued a statement that reflected the intense fear gripping opposition supporters.
“Whatever might happen, the results . . . will not be recognized by the world,” Tsvangirai said. “No matter what you are forced to do, we know what is in your heart. Don’t risk your life.”
Results are expected within a few days.
