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Thousands of people stayed away from the polls Friday, The Daily Telegraph reported, ignoring threats that anyone without an ink-stained finger to show they had voted would be arrested. The British newspaper said that at many polling stations in Harare no one had voted three hours into the election.

Brian Hungwe, a Zimbabwean reporter, told the BBC that some who did vote called Mugabe, the incumbent who was unopposed on the runoff, a murderer on their ballots. He said that in Matabeleland spoiled ballots outnumbered votes for the president.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, withdrew from the runoff several days ago, saying that violence made a legitimate vote impossible. He told his supporters to stay away from the polls if possible but to vote rather than risk arrest or physical harm.

The Herald, the official government newspaper, persisted Saturday in calling the vote a two-man race. It said the National Election Commission would release the count as it came in. After the March 29 election, where Tsvangirai won the most votes, official results were released weeks late.

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