HARARE, March 29: Zimbabweans voted on Saturday in an election which could see Robert Mugabe turfed out of power after 28 years, with his opponents accusing the president of trying to extend his rule by rigging.

As foreign observers added their concerns to opposition accusations that Mugabe was stealing votes, Africa’s oldest leader said he was confident of victory and he could not sleep at night if he attempted to fix the result.

“We don’t rig elections. I cannot sleep with my conscience if I have rigged,” the 84-year-old said as he cast his ballot in the capital Harare.

Large queues had gathered outside the polling stations in the capital Harare by the time they opened, but apathy appeared to have reigned in other parts of the country.

The 5.9m strong electorate has until 7:00 p.m. (1700 GMT) to cast their vote for president as well as elect members of the 210 seat parliament and local councils.

Mugabe, who has ruled the former British colony uninterrupted since independence in 1980, is up against ex-finance minister Simba Makoni and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

While Makoni, formerly one of the leading lights in the ruling ZANU-PF party, is likely to peel votes away from Mugabe, Tsvangirai is seen by analysts to represent the major threat to the president.

As he cast his ballot in Harare, Tsvangirai said he expected to win the poll but made fresh allegations of widespread vote-rigging.

“Victory is assured in spite of the regime’s attempt to subvert the will of the people,” Tsvangirai told reporters.

Tsvangirai said his party had uncovered evidence of widespread vote-rigging, including the names of a million “ghost” voters registered to cast their ballots in a northern region of Zimbabwe.

“Even if the MDC wins, the election cannot be said to be free and fair,” he added.

A team of African observers meanwhile wrote a letter to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission claiming that 8,450 voters had been registered on a patch of deserted land in northern Harare.

“Despite the fact that the area is empty, voters were registered using addresses of the empty stands,” said the letter shown to newsmen by the observers.

No reliable opinion polls were conducted during the campaign, although state media has predicted Mugabe would triumph with 57 per cent of the vote and avoid the need for a second round run-off within three weeks.

The election takes place as Zimbabwe is grappling with the impact of the world’s highest rate of inflation — officially put at 100,580.2 percent — and an unemployment level which has breached the 80 percent mark.

Once seen as the region’s breadbasket, the country is now suffering from previously unheard of shortages of even the most basic foodstuffs such as cooking oil and bread.

“We just want to live normally again, to be able to get into hospitals stocked with drugs, to be able to walk into shops and buy mealie-meal (corn flour),” said a mother-of-seven after voting at the same polling station as Mugabe. She did not want to give her name.

The president has blamed the country’s economic woes on the European Union and the United States, which imposed sanctions on his inner circle after he was accused of rigging his 2002 re-election. He has portrayed the election as a chance to stand up against the West and in particular Britain.

Security forces have been placed on full alert during the poll in a bid to avert the type of violence which followed the recent disputed election in Kenya.

While there were no reports of widespread unrest, police said that the home of one ruling party parliamentary candidate had been firebombed in the main southern city of Bulawayo.

While the turnout appeared high in Harare, it was a different story in Bulawayo, with a polling station in one of the suburbs virtually deserted except for election officers and the police.

“At first I thought I was lost,” said 25-year-old Asakhile Ncube, after casting her ballot at Large City Hall.

“I had deliberately delayed coming to vote, thinking there would be a long queue. But I was surprised to see no queue and I thought I had come to the wrong place.” The first results are not expected until Sunday and the count is not expected to be completed for several days.—AFP