Zimbabweans queued before dawn this morning to vote in the most crucial election since independence in 1980 amid fears of election rigging and state-sponsored violence and intimidation.
Within an hour of polling stations opening, there were claims that voters in urban areas which are opposition strongholds have been turned away from polling stations.
Some appear to have turned up at the wrong polling stations but a failure to publicise the procedures for the election were blamed on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
Polling stations have now closed and a full count is expected to take several days.
And CNN reports the Zimbabwe Commission refused to allow opposition polling agents into at least 19 polling stations, claiming they had lost their accreditation.
President Robert Mugabe, accused of ruining his once prosperous nation, faces the biggest challenge of his controversial 28-year rule.
Robert Mugabe: This is a vote against the British
The 84-year-old who has ruled since independence from Britain, will undergo a formidable two-pronged assault from veteran opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (56) and a former finance minster in the ruling ZANU-PF party Simba Makoni (58).
His two rivals believe they can finally end Mr Mugabe's iron rule because of an economic meltdown that has reduced most of the population to misery, including those in his traditional rural strongholds.
But they have charged that Mr Mugabe intends using the security forces to rig the election and there have been concern expressed locally and internationally that violence may follow irrespective of the result which is not expected for several days.
Mr Mugabe denied the claims and said he was confident of victory but would accept defeat. "Why should I cheat? The people are there supporting us. The moment the people stop supporting you, then that's the moment you should quit politics," he said.
Voting, which is scheduled to last 12 hours, was largely peaceful but police said a bomb exploded in the house of a ruling party candidate in the second city of Bulawayo, an opposition stronghold. No-one was hurt.
Police and army units backed by armoured vehicles and water cannons had patrolled overnight. "That is intimidation but we will not be cowed. We have nothing to lose," said Samuel Furutsa outside a polling station in the Harare township of Mufakose.
Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, now suffers the world's worst inflation at 100,000 per cent, a rampant HIV/AIDS epidemic that has contributed to a radical reduction in life expectancy, a virtually worthless currency and chronic shortages of food and fuel.
A woman shows her ink-stained finger after casting her vote in Zimbabwe's presidential, parliamentary and council elections. Reuters
But few analysts are prepared to count Mr Mugabe out. They say he has maintained a tight grip on power through a combination of ruthless security crackdowns, intimidation of rivals and an elaborate patronage system. A split opposition may also favour Mr Mugabe.
Supporters both inside the country and elsewhere in Africa still revere him as the last of the liberation heroes.
Mr Tsvangirai, a former trade unionist who has long posed the greatest threat to Mr Mugabe, and Mr Makoni, who is now an independent, say the economic catastrophe will not end unless the veteran leader is replaced.
The state-owned
Heraldnewspaper reported yesterday that an opinion poll showed Mr Mugabe would win up to 57 per cent of the vote, which analysts saw as a way of preparing the population for his victory. The poll was conducted by a university lecturer seen as sympathetic to the government.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern joined world leaders yesterday is criticising Harare for not allowing Western election observers monitor the vote.
Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Makoni said on Thursday that Mr Mugabe planned to declare victory with almost 60 per cent of the vote after a fraudulent count. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission yestrday rejected opposition accusations that the voters roll was padded with many non-existent "ghost voters" to ensure ZANU-PF victory.
"I maintain that the voters roll is very credible [although] it is not perfect," commission chairman George Chiweshe told reporters, although he conceded some dead people could be on the rolls.
"Deaths occur every day, we will never be able to catch up with them," he said.
Mr Mugabe blames the economic collapse on sanctions by Britain and other Western nations. "This is a vote against the British. The fight is not against the MDC ... the MDC is just a puppet, a mouthpiece of the British," he said in one of his last rallies yesterday.
If no candidate wins more than 51 per cent of the vote today, the election will go into a second round, when the two opposition parties would likely unite.