Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe literally received his marching orders from thousands of opposition supporters yesterday, in one of the last big rallies before next weekend's crucial elections.
At least 12,000 supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) turned out for a boisterous rally in Harare's Rufaro Stadium. They sang songs, repeatedly shouted their slogan "change your ways" and at one point held thousands of s referees' red cards aloft.
Nobody left the pitch but the message was clear: "Mugabe must go".
The rally was a show of strength for an increasingly confident opposition buoyed by an opinion poll suggesting it will take 70 of the 120 seats when the votes are counted next Monday, ending 20 years of domination by Dr Mugabe's Zanu PF party.
The well attended event contrasted sharply with an embarrassingly low turnout for a Zanu PF rally on Saturday. An estimated crowd of 5,000 came to hear President Mugabe speak at a venue where he drew hundreds of thousands at independence in 1980.
Violence had been feared at yesterday's event but it passed off largely peacefully. Police prevented people attending earlier rallies and several MDC supporters have died at the hands of the war veterans led by Mr Chenjerai Hunzvi.
The only hint of violence yesterday came when police brought a dazed Zanu PF supporter with a bloodied nose into the stadium. An MDC official claimed the man had been preventing others from attending the event.
The scores of international observers standing in the centre of the stadium appeared to have a beneficial effect. "Before when we had rallies the war veterans would come along and start beating people up while the police did nothing," said a young woman.
A small number of whites were sprinkled among the crowd or sat on the speaker's podium. One was 15-year-old Tom Spicer, who addressed the crowd in the Shona language, telling the police present to "tell your superiors what you have heard, that the MDC has brought president Morgan Tsvangirai."
While the seizure of white farms has caught the international spotlight, it is a secondary consideration for voters. With rampant inflation, soaring interest rates and a 55 per cent unemployment rate, their main interest is jobs. "Mugabe's ruling elite has betrayed us," Mr Tsvangirai told the crowd to rapturous applause.
Afterwards the exuberant crowd crammed into old green buses waiting outside. They hung out the windows as the buses lurched down the road, cheering loudly and waving their red cards.