As Zimbabwe hurtled towards its sham presidential election, Morgan Tsvangirai emerged from hiding yesterday with a message for his arch enemy: negotiate now, or never.

In a telephone interview from the Dutch Embassy, Mr Tsvangirai told The Times that the time for talking would be over if President Mugabe went ahead with the vote tomorrow. “Negotiations will be over if Mr Mugabe declares himself the winner and considers himself the president. How can we negotiate?” he said.

Mr Mugabe said yesterday that he might be prepared to talk after the poll, which the Government insisted would go ahead, despite the withdrawal of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader this week.

Were Mr Mugabe to approach him afterwards, Mr Tsvangirai had this message for him: “Look, you refused to talk to me then, how can I talk to you now? I made these offers, I made these overtures, I told you I would negotiate before the elections and not after – because it’s not about elections, it’s about transition.

“You disregarded that, you undertook violence against my supporters, you killed and maimed, you are still killing and maiming unarmed civilians, the army is still out there. How can you call yourself an elected presi-dent? You are illegitimate and I will not speak to an illegitimate president.”

Earlier Mr Tsvangirai emerged briefly from the Dutch Embassy in Harare, where he took refuge on Sunday after armed troops turned up at his house to look for him, to put forward a plan to resolve the crisis gripping the country. Appearing at his suburban home, the MDC leader called for the African Union, with the support of the UN, to “set up a transitional period” and hold talks to find a negotiated settlement to provide a way out of the violence and economic chaos.

He claimed that the plan had been accepted by President Kikwete of Tan-zania, the chairman of the African Union, and President Mwanawasa of Zambia, the chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the 14-nation regional grouping. “We [the MDC] have put forward our proposals,” Mr Tsvangirai said. “It is in the hands of SADC; it is in the hands of the AU.”

In a further sign that Mr Mugabe’s neighbours were deserting him, a security troika of SADC leaders meeting in Swaziland yesterday called for the run-off of the presidential election to be postponed, saying that it would lack credibility. The South African Government said that one of its senior negotiators was in Harare discussing the options, including calling off the vote.

Mr Tsvangirai also set out other conditions for negotiations with Mr Mugabe, demanding that the violence stop immediately, that emergency relief operations resume, political prisoners be released – including the MDC’s secretary-general Tendai Biti, being held on treason charges – and that Parliament be sworn in. The MDC won a majority in the parliamentary elections in March.

Other senior opposition officials, including Mr Tsvangirai’s campaign manager, are also in hiding, and the party headquarters in central Harare were abandoned after a police raid this week.

But with one day to go, the MDC leader admitted there seemed to be little the world could do to stop the vote. “It can go ahead by force,” Mr Tsvangirai told The Times. “But it will be a one-man race. It has nothing to do with the view of the people.”

Back inside the Dutch Embassy, he added that it was too early to say when he would leave. “I am the prime target. I am not going to take chances with my safety. It’s not just about Mr Mugabe, it’s about the people out there who could take the law into their own hands. There is no rule of law here.”

Militia mobs were roaming the country’s townships last night as the clock counted down to a poll hailed by Mr Mugabe as the final battle for total control. “The West can scream all it wants. Elections will go on,” Mr Mugabe told a rally of thousands of cheering Zanu (PF) supporters north of Harare. “The MDC leader saw this wave of political hurricane coming his way. He is frightened, frightened of the people.”

In Harare yesterday the atmosphere could not have been more different from that on the day before the first round on March 29, when many hoped for a change of leadership. The Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network, the independent election observer body that fielded 50,000 observers in March, announced that it would be unable to monitor the poll this time because of the threat to its staff.

MDC supporters say that, rather than letting up on the violence, Zanu (PF) has stepped up its campaign of terror. David, an MDC supporter from the violence-racked township of Epworth, described how his son was being taken every night to allnight indoctrination sessions by the militia.

The beatings are having the desired effect. “In the past we always went in the box and voted for ourselves, but this time we have got only one choice,” David said.

“Maybe the war will come back if we vote for Morgan – because it’s just like a war, what we are going through. So what can I do? We are afraid. We are all together this time. We will vote Zanu.”

Moses, an MDC supporter who works in central Harare, said he had been ordered to return to his village the evening before the elections. “They want to make sure we are all here to vote,” he said. Local Zanu (PF) officials had told the villagers that they had to queue up at the polling station “and when we see the police or the Zanu people, we must tell them that we cannot read or write so they will help us to vote”.

Zimbabwe’s literacy rate of 96 per cent is its proudest boast and the result of Mr Mugabe’s postindependence commitment to universal education. “Zimbabwe’s literacy will fall down in one day,” Moses said with a hollow laugh. But he was adamant that he would not vote for Mr Mugabe. “I will crumple up my vote like that,” he said with a clench of his fist.

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