Zimbabweans go to the polls on Saturday with long-ruling President Robert Mugabe battling for survival in the tightest contest since independence from Britain in 1980.
The 84-year-old, Africa's oldest head of state, is trying to see off former finance minister Simba Makoni and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai against a backdrop of an economic meltdown and isolation from the West.
The only man to have led the former colony of Rhodesia since independence has shown during the campaign his appetite for power remains unsatiated after previously indicating his current term would be his last.
PHOTO: AFP
"Let the people's voice thunder across the whole country ... rejecting and damning once and for all the bootlicking British stooges, the traitors and sellouts, the political witches and political prostitutes, political charlatans and the two-headed political creatures," he told a recent rally.
But despite his bravado, analysts say a straight win is not guaranteed for a man presiding over the world's highest inflation rate and a ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), whose splits have been highlighted by Makoni's decision to break ranks.
"For the first time, Mugabe will not get an outright win," Harare-based political commentator Bill Said said.
"There is discontent everywhere and divisions in ZANU-PF as some begin to see sense in Makoni's defection. Mugabe will obviously lose a lot of votes to Makoni and this time around, even his traditional rural strongholds will not be a walkover for him," he said. "It might be the dawn of the end for Mugabe."
The campaign for the joint parliamentary and presidential polls has been free of the bloodshed that claimed dozens of lives in the build-up to ballots in 2000 and 2002.
But his opponents complain the president has not allowed a level playing field, with security chiefs vowing to never allow anyone other than Mugabe to rule.
Once a regional breadbasket, Zimbabwe's economic malaise since the last elections has led to widespread shortages of even basic foodstuffs such as cooking oil and bread. Unemployment stands at more than 80 percent.
Up to 4 million Zimbabweans have left for greener pastures, mostly to South Africa, whose government has refused to criticize its neighbor.
Symptoms of the crisis are more pronounced in cities where residents can go for weeks without running water, electricity supplies are erratic and refuse piles up in the streets.
Drivers lucky enough to obtain gasoline often have to dodge potholes described by Makoni as "large enough to swallow an entire freight truck."
Makoni, once one of Mugabe's top lieutenants until he quit the government in 2003, says the state of the nation was a result of failure of leadership.
"Shops are full of dust because there is nothing on the shelves. Factories are working less than eight hours a day and workers have been reduced to vendors," he said. "We are living in darkness yet we had enough power for the whole country. Where did it all go?"
Mugabe has acknowledged Zimbabweans face hardships, but blames the West.
The EU and the US imposed sanctions against Mugabe and his inner circle after determining he rigged his 2002 re-election. The sanctions, which include a freeze on bank accounts, are designed to avoid hitting the population as a whole.
The Movement for Democratic Change party of Tsvangirai -- runner-up in 2002 -- says Mugabe is again trying to steal votes, citing an electoral roll it argues is stuffed with phantom voters.
Tsvangirai, a former union leader, had previously vowed to boycott elections, but eventually decided to enter as head of a party which has also been hit by splits.
"The economy has been destroyed to such an extent that we need to start afresh. Zimbabwe is one of the world's great humanitarian crises," he said.
Western states have been barred from sending observers, although teams from China and Iran have been invited.
Some 5.9 million voters are eligible to cast ballots at 9,000 polling stations, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said.
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