By Cris Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) - Many Zimbabweans boycotted their onecandidate-election on Friday, but witnesses and monitors saidgovernment militias forced people to vote for 84-year-oldPresident Robert Mugabe in some areas.
The vote, held despite a storm of condemnation from insideand outside Africa, was denounced as a sham by Western powersand opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai, who won the first round on March 29, pulled outof the poll a week ago and took refuge in the Dutch embassybecause of state-backed violence he said had killed almost 90of his supporters.
He told a news conference millions of people were stayingaway from the polls despite intimidation.
"What is happening today is not an election. It is anexercise in mass intimidation with people all over the countrybeing forced to vote," Tsvangirai said.
A witness in Chitungwiza town, south of Harare, toldReuters voters were forced to hand the serial number of theirballot paper and their identity details to an official fromMugabe's ZANU-PF party so he could see how they voted.
The Zimbabwe Crisis Coalition rights group said villageheads had "assisted" teachers to vote in some rural areas afterforcing them to declare they were illiterate.
Turnout was low in urban areas where Tsvangirai's Movementfor Democratic Change (MDC) is traditionally strong. But it wasnot clear how many voters went to the polls in rural districtsthat are difficult for independent journalists to visit.
State television denounced foreign media reports of lowturnout. It showed long queues in rural and semi-ruralconstituencies and said voters ignored appeals to abstain.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a monitoring group,said its observers reported that traditional leaders forcedpeople to vote in most rural areas. It said the poll would notreflect the will of the people.
ZESN also reported militias and traditional leaders werenoting the names of voters and asking for the serial numbers oftheir ballot papers as they left polling stations.
ZESN said before the vote it could not deploy properlybecause of intimidation of its monitors.
Tsvangirai had urged people to abstain but said they shouldvote if they were in danger.
Turnout was much lower in many areas than in parliamentaryand presidential elections in March, when people queued fromthe early hours. Tsvangirai won that poll but fell short of themajority needed for outright victory.
SANCTIONS
The G8 group of rich nations lambasted Zimbabwe for goingahead with the run-off and the United States said the U.N.Security Council may consider fresh sanctions next week.
Tsvangirai said pro-Mugabe militias had threatened to killanybody abstaining or voting for the opposition.
Voters had their little finger dyed with purple ink.
"There is no doubt turnout will be very low," said MarwickKhumalo, head of monitors from the Pan African Parliament.
Another African election monitor, who asked not be tonamed, said turnout was low except in some ZANU-PF strongholds.
Mugabe voted with his wife at Highfield Township, on theoutskirts of Harare. Asked how he felt, he told journalists:"Very fit, optimistic, upbeat," before being driven away.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced late on Fridaythat counting of the ballots had started. It was unclear howlong it would take for results to be issued.
The African Union is optimistic it can solve the Zimbabwecrisis. "I am convinced we will sort it out and that ourcredibility will be maintained," AU Commission chairman JeanPing said during a foreign ministers meeting in Sharm elSheikh, Egypt, ahead of an AU summit next week.
Tsvangirai said he understood South African President ThaboMbeki planned to recognise Mugabe's re-election. But he said itwould be a "dream" to expect his MDC to join a national unitygovernment with Mugabe's ZANU-PF.
Mbeki, the designated regional mediator in Zimbabwe, hasbeen widely criticised for a soft approach towards Mugabedespite an economic crisis that has flooded South Africa andother countries with millions of refugees.
Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu, often seen as SouthAfrica's moral conscience, said the world had the right tooverride Zimbabwe's sovereignty to intervene in its crisis andshould consider banning flights to the nation.
Tutu told Channel 4 television that the "internationalcommunity has the right now to override the sovereigntyargument of the country." He added that African leaders shoulddeclare Mugabe's government illegitimate.
BREAD
In the affluent Greendale suburb of Harare in the morningthere were scores of people queuing for bread at a shoppingcentre but only 10 at a polling station nearby.
"I need to get food first and then maybe I can go and vote... I heard there could be trouble for those who don't," saidTito Kudya, an unemployed man.
Mugabe has presided over an economic collapse accompaniedby hyper-inflation, 80 percent unemployment, food and fuelshortages. A loaf of bread costs 6 billion Zimbabwe dollars, or150 times more than at the time of the first round ofelections.
A middle-aged man waiting for a bus said it was dangerousto talk about politics. "Your tongue can cost you your teeth,"he told Reuters, adding that he would vote.
Analysts said Mugabe was pressing ahead with the electionto try to cement his grip on power and strengthen his hand ifhe was forced to negotiate with Tsvangirai.
A security committee of the Southern African DevelopmentCommunity (SADC) called earlier this week for the vote to bepostponed, saying Mugabe's re-election could lack legitimacy.
But Mugabe, who thrives on defiance, remained unmoved andsaid he would attend an AU summit to confront his opponents.
Mugabe says he is willing to sit down with the MDC but willnot bow to outside pressure.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Japan thatWashington would raise the issue of further sanctions at theU.N. Security Council. The European Commission described therun-off as "a sham".
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say onthe top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ )
(Additional reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe and NelsonBanya in Harare, John Chalmers in Tokyo, Dan Wallis in Sharmel-Sheikh, Marius Bosch and Michael Georgy in Johannesburg;Writing by Barry Moody; Editing by Paul Simao and MuchenaZigomo)
