The opposition leader has urged his supporters to

“I really do not expect anything to change because of this election,” said

Joseph Kundiona, a father of two who had just cast his ballot at around

0900hrs at a polling station at Queen Elizabeth high school just outside

Harare city centre.

“I can tell you most of us are just voting because we hope that way we will

be left in peace,” he added. There were only about 10 people waiting to vote

at the polling station, an insignificant number compared to the several

hundreds of people who had queued at the same polling station by early

morning during elections in March.

ZimOnline correspondents reported a similarly slow turn out at other polling

stations in Harare, the second largest city of Bulawayo and other major

urban centres.

But the turnout was better at most polling stations visited by ZimOnline

stringers in rural areas, with a chance the final turnout could be much

higher in rural areas if the pace of voting in the early morning hours was

maintained throughout the day.

Mugabe is the only candidate in today’s presidential run-off election after

opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai – who won the first round ballot on

March 29 – pulled out saying a free and fair vote was impossible under the

current climate of violence and intimidation. 

Tsvangirai has urged his supporters not to vote in today’s election unless

their lives were threatened.

Western governments have denounced today’s vote as a sham while the United

Nations Security Council earlier this week condemned political violence in

Zimbabwe and called for the run-off election to be cancelled.

The Southern African Development Community’s peace and security troika on

Wednesday called for the vote to be postponed saying holding the election

under current conditions would undermine the credibility and legitimacy of

its outcome, in the strongest disapproval of Zimbabwe’s vote from the

regional bloc.

Several other African governments have also criticsied the election while

United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi

Frazer said Washington would not recognise the result of the outcome of the

vote because Tsvangirai had been violently forced out of the running.

But Mugabe insisted on going ahead with the election that he says is a legal

obligation that must be fulfilled.

Meanwhile the UN Security Council is expected to discuss further punitive

sanctions against Zimbabwe after today’s election, Germany’s Foreign

Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters at the end of a meeting of

foreign ministers from the Group of Eight wealthy nations in Kyoto.

“This was linked with an announcement by the United States, who are

currently presiding over the Security Council, that starting next week, this

coming Monday, further sanctions will be discussed there,” Steinmeier said.

Zimbabwe allies, China and Russia, as well as South Africa, which is not a

permanent member of the Security Council, have in the past blocked tougher

measures against Mugabe’s government. – ZimOnline.