President Robert Mugabe's ruling party thumbed its nose at voters yesterday and declared it would form Zimbabwe's next government even if the opposition won the parliamentary elections this weekend.
But Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader challenging the party's 20-year stranglehold on power, countered by saying "Mugabe is history. There is life beyond Mugabe."
Close to 60 per cent of the 5.1 million registered voters had cast their ballots five hours before polling closed at last night.
Voting was massive on Saturday and light yesterday but generally peaceful, with only scattered reports of attacks and intimidation after more than four months of violence, characterised by human rights groups as a government-sponsored terror campaign to crush the opposition. At least 32 people have been killed. Mr Mugabe met President Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and President Sam Nujoma of Namibia in Harare yesterday, for talks on the DRC peace process.
Political analysts interpreted the high turnout as a sign of support for Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change. Many people turned up to vote with bibles after attending church yesterday. At one point a queue in Harare stretched for two kilometres.
"Let them be our guests," Mr Tsvangirai said after Mr John Nkomo, the ZANU-PF chairman, declared: "ZANU-PF will most definitely form the next government whatever the result of the legislative election."
The voting took place under the eye of 300 foreign observers, after the government withheld accreditation from more than 200 others. Mr Pierre Schori, head of the EU team, said the election could not be described as either free or fair, as "the level of violence and intimidation in the pre-election phase makes the term not applicable".
First results are expected today.