Gangs go after Mugabe opponents

The ruling party, which controls appointments to the Electoral Commission, says no candidate won the 50%-plus-one majority to avoid a runoff.

"We don't want a second round," Saramu said. "It's not very safe for us."

"It's very tense," Kagurabadza said. "Gangs of ZANU-PF militias are patrolling at night and even during the day. They go into the areas where they know there are MDC supporters. They are preparing for the runoff. They will cow people so they don't vote MDC."

He said he feared the same thugs would surround polling booths on election day and take down the names of people who voted in an attempt to frighten them, as happened in 2000 and 2002.

As the days drag on without official presidential results, Zimbabweans have gone back to the grind of scraping out a living in a country with a 100,000% inflation rate and severe shortages of food and other basics. Voluntary road crews fill in potholes, money dealers wait on street corners and women sell vegetables to raise money.

In the capital, Harare, vans with helmeted riot police crawled through the streets Tuesday, arresting female money dealers for illegal street trading. Some opposition activists have been beaten in pro-MDC neighborhoods near the city.

In rural areas, where MDC supporters are isolated and vulnerable, gangs of unemployed thugs have proved easy to unleash.

Though the ruling party won in Mutoko village in Mashonaland East, party supporters, armed with AK-47s and pistols, forced people in the village center to attend an impromptu meeting Sunday morning, witnesses said.

"They stopped people and said they were hunting for MDC activists and they wanted to kill people. They had guns, which they showed us," said Knowledge Maponda, 26, an MDC supporter but not an activist. Even nurses and patients at a nearby clinic were forced to attend, he said.

"They said: 'We are going into a runoff, so you need to vote for the presidential candidate of ZANU-PF. We are not going to tolerate any nonsense. We are going to kill if you vote for the MDC. We are watching you closely.'

"None of us said we were MDC supporters. We were afraid of being killed," Maponda said.

During the meeting, MDC campaign manager Kuratidza Sandati hid in his home. When they came for him a short while later, his 12-year-old son answered.

"They came and knocked and were told I had gone to the shops. They went to the shops, where they ordered all the doors closed. They were drunk and they were showing everyone their guns, big ones with chains of bullets."