Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai expects longtime leader Robert Mugabe to "engage in every trick in the book" to rig the voting for the coming presidential election.
Zimbabwean refugees living in Cape Town are also viewing the March 29 elections with profound cynicism.
Asked who they believe will win, they answer wearily: "It's obvious" and "Mugabe will win", according to The Cape Argus.
"We need an intervention from God,” Shelton Hadebe, a former tour guide in Zimbabwe, told the South African newspaper. “With the rigging and buying of votes, the chances of winning are slim for opposition candidates."
On Sunday, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) – Zimbabwe's main opposition party – accused the government of printing more than 3 million excess paper ballots for the coming election and Mugabe of attempting to rig the voting.
MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said leaked documents from government printers showed 9 million ballot papers were ordered for the 5.9 million people registered to vote in the presidential election.
"We are extremely worried about the extra ballot papers," Biti said, according to AP.
Earlier this month, an independent monitoring group said many voters in Zimbabwe's cities — strongholds of the opposition — may not have time to cast ballots in upcoming elections because too few polling stations have been provided.
A list of polling stations released by the Electoral Commission for the March 29 vote showed "a significant discrepancy" that favoured the ruling party in its rural strongholds, reported the Zimbabwe Election Support Network.
