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Zimbabweans forced to polls by marshals

Zanu-PF supporters listen to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe at a campaign rally in Chitungwiza on Thursday. Zimbabwe held a presidential run-off election with only one candidate, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. PHOTO: AP

Marshals led voters to polling stations, bands of government supporters harassed people in the street and rural voters faced arson threats yesterday as Zimbabwe held an internationally discredited, one-candidate presidential runoff marked by intimidation.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who withdrew from the runoff against longtime Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe after an intense campaign of state-sponsored violence, said the results of the election would “reflect only the fear of the people of Zimbabwe.”

Dozens of opposition supporters have been killed and thousands injured ahead of the vote.

Paramilitary police in riot gear deployed in a central Harare park, then began patrolling the city. Militant Mugabe supporters roamed the streets, heckling people and asking why they were not voting.

“I’ve got no option but to go and vote so that I can be safe,” a young woman selling tomatoes said.

A gunman in civilian clothes was seen attacking a TV news cameraman and the voter he was interviewing in Harare, then forcing them into a police car. Two Zimbabwean freelance journalists were detained by police as they waited to watch Mugabe vote.

World leaders roundly condemned the vote.

“Today’s election is a sham, the election is hollow and its result will be equally hollow and meaningless,” EU spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy said in Brussels, Belgium.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, at a meeting in Japan, said the US would raise possible sanctions with other members of the UN Security Council.

Election observers said Zimbabweans were being forced to the polls and were frightened.

Lines built up at polls as voters arrived in groups, led by people believed to be ruling party marshals carrying books filled with names. In one side street, names were being called out and ticked off as people headed into a polling station.
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