Zimbabweans go to the polls today for the first time since a violent and disputed vote in 2008.
Once again the focus will be on the battle for the presidency between two men: incumbent President Robert Mugabe and his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Eighty-nine-year-old Mugabe, who has been in office for 33 years, is seeking to extend his grip on power.
He has called the contest “the fight of our lives”.
Meanwhile, 61-year-old Tsvangirai is hoping to succeed in his third attempt to unseat Mugabe.
Tsvangirai has vowed to push Mugabe into retirement, saying it was time for new blood and new ideas.
The presidential and parliamentary race ends four years of fractious unity government.
Heavily armed riot police have been deployed to potential flashpoints in the country.
Both Tsvangirai’s MDC and Mugabe’s ZANU-PF parties predict landslide victories.
But, in a country with a history of election violence, the bigger question is whether the loser will accept the result of a poll which has been dogged by logistical problems and allegations of vote-rigging.
Western election observers have been barred from the elections, leaving the task of overseeing the vote to 500 regional and 7,000 domestic monitors
The final results must be released within five days but may come sooner.
It is possible neither leading candidate will emerge an outright winner, triggering a run-off – a nightmare scenario for many of Zimbabwe’s 13 million people who remember the 2008 violence.
