Nyasha was waiting last night to have his fingers checked. At stake was his house, his health and possibly even his life.

Nyasha, like every other voter, had had to dip his little finger into a sponge soaked with pink indelible fluid. “Operation Red Finger” is a vital pillar in President Mugabe’s strategy to maximise turnout, to give yesterday’s one-man presidential race a semblance of respectability.

So everybody went to vote, even in Epworth, a sprawling jumble of mud and brick huts that has witnessed some of the worst political violence in Zimbabwe in recent weeks. When Nyasha and his lodger Brian got to the polling station in Epworth, at 7am, there was already a very long queue.

There were as many people waiting to cast their ballot yesterday at the school where the vote was held as in the relatively free first round in March, but Nyasha sensed that the atmosphere was much more subdued. A crowd of youths lurked at the gate of the school, without their Mugabe T-shirts, so as not to make the purpose of their presence too obvious. Their job was to make sure that everybody voted the right way.

“When I got to the gate, a war veteran gave me a pen and a piece of paper. He told me I had to write the serial number of the ballot paper when I am in the polling booth,” Nyasha said.

“When you come out, you go to another war veteran waiting at the gate and he writes down your serial number, your name, your address and your ID number in an exercise book. They say that later they can find your ballot paper and check who you voted for. If you voted for the MDC, they will destroy your house and you have to leave Epworth.

“I have a red finger,” he said. “I wanted to vote for Tsvangirai, but I voted for Mugabe, because of fear. Everyone is afraid their houses will be destroyed, so they are voting for Mugabe.”

In the last two weeks, nearly 200 homes of suspected MDC supporters have been smashed by Zanu (PF) gangs, up to 15 of them in Nyasha’s ward.

“Now we are waiting for the end of the day,” Nyasha said on his way home. “They said they will come to everyone’s houses after voting is finished and see that everybody voted. They will look at our fingers for the red ink. If you don’t have red ink they will beat you and then destroy your house,” he said. In Epworth, the Zanu (PF) election campaign for the run-off featured systematic floggings, preceded by “confessions” forced out of people who voted for the MDC in the first round in March.

Amazingly, there are still some people who are prepared to defy the regime. Mary, a maid in her late 50s, was going to make sure she got her red finger, but she could not bear to tick the name of the sole remaining candidate. “I am going to draw a big X all over the voting paper, to spoil my vote,” she said. “I don’t want Mugabe.”

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