The low turnout left Robert Mugabe’s pursuit for legitimacy in shambles, while giving Tsvangirai the consolation prize that apathy  and not Mugabe  would be the electorate’s choice as a winner of the one-horse race.
Informed sources say Mugabe will release the results this weekend and be sworn in for a five-year term so that he can attend the African Union (AU) summit in Egypt on Monday.
Mugabe vowed on Thursday to attend the summit with a new mandate . He said that no one would be able to point a finger at him at the summit because worse elections had been held in other parts of Africa.
The political stalemate in Zimbabwe will be even more entrenched after the runoff, leaving regional leaders in a tight spot, having to push even harder for a negotiated settlement in the form of a government of national unity in Zimbabwe. Mugabe and Tsvangirai both say they want to talk.
On Friday, AU foreign ministers bickered behind closed doors over how to handle Zimbabwe’s political crisis. AU Commission chairperson Jean Ping urged ministers to leave it to heads of state when they gather on Monday to pass judgment on the one-man election race.
Another reason Mugabe wants to be sworn in quickly is to retain the levers of power and defend his regime under pressure from world and African leaders likely to reject the runoff outcome .
There was a low turnout in urban areas in the election runoff, while people in rural areas who went to the polls in large numbers said they voted out of fear.
Marauding gangs of Zanu (PF) militias and state security forces drove people in rural areas to vote for Mugabe. People said they had been told or forced to go to vote . Taurai Takunda, from Seke communal lands outside Harare, said he had voted for his safety.
I went to vote because we were told that if we didn’t we would be beaten up, he said. We have also been told that war will return if we do not vote for him (Mugabe).
Another Seke voter , Martha Chiweshe, said she cast her ballot after being told by a group of Zanu (PF) campaigners in the village they should do so to avoid trouble.
An elderly man, Sekuru Gumbo, said he had voted for Mugabe because he liberated and gave us land. I voted for him because he is our leader.
In central Harare  an MDC constituency  there was not a single voter to be found in the afternoon. A check of polling stations revealed there were more polling officers and policemen present than voters.
I didn’t go to vote because there is no election. It’s just Mugabe’s drama alone. I don’t want to be part of this charade, said Martin Jere, a medical practitioner in Harare. Only those who have time to waste are going to vote.
In Harare townships  also MDC strongholds  there was a trickle of voters. Most people remained holed up in their homes until paramilitary police and Zanu (PF) groups started driving them out to vote.
They came and said we should go and vote. We couldn’t resist because we were afraid, said a mother of two, Stella Tigere . But we didn’t vote for Mugabe, we just spoiled the ballot papers.
Several voters in urban areas said they had spoiled their ballots. One voter, who asked not be named, said: I wrote Mugabe must go’ on the ballot paper.”
Mugabe has always performed dismally in Zimbabwe’s cities because of discontent over social and economic problems.
Bulawayo, a fiercely anti- Mugabe city, had an even worse turnout than Harare, with people choosing to remain at home.
The longest queue in Bulawayo spotted by election observers and journalists had 10 people.
People are not voting. We have been here since early morning and we have had only a handful of voters passing through, said Themba Khumalo, a police officer at a polling station at Mzilikazi township in Bulawayo .
Mugabe voted with his wife Grace at Highfield township in Harare. Asked how he felt, he said: Very fit, optimistic, upbeat.”
The low turnout contrasted with the parliamentary and presidential elections in March, when people queued from the early hours. Voter turnout during the March polls was about 42%, but this time, it is likely to be half of that figure.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, criticised by opposition parties as incompetent and lacking credibility, said voting had gone well yesterday, without commenting on the low turnout.
The runoff was a sham, Tsvangirai said: What is happening today is not an election. It is an exercise in mass intimidation, with people all over the country being forced to vote.
Zimbabweans are attempting to stay away from the polls as they can tell the difference between democracy and a dictatorship desperate for the illusion of legitimacy. There is nothing legitimate about this election process.
Tsvangirai claimed that in rural and some urban areas people were forced to spend the night in the open outside the polling stations.
He said police and state security agents had launched Operation Red Finger to check if people had voted and if they had not, forced them to do so.
He said most African and world leaders would reject the runoff result. Whatever might happen, the results will not be recognised by the world.”
While most observers said the election was a nonevent, the former Sierra Leone president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, the head of the AU election observer mission, said the runoff was well organised. I’m highly impressed by the orderly manner in which the election has been organised,” he said. Kabbah said he had not seen any evidence of violence in Zimbabwe.
Up to 90 people were killed before the runoff. Tsvangirai said at least 200000 were displaced, while 10000 had been injured in a campaign of terror .
The end of this dictatorship is now assured. The people’s victory may have been delayed by this sham election, but it will never be denied, Tsvangirai said.