Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe awaited confirmation Saturday of his victory in a one-man election, branded a sham by the opposition and the West, as preparations were made for a rapid swearing-in.
Although officials had still to declare results from the 210 constituencies, counting had been completed and the tallies were being collated.
"After the closing of polling stations yesterday (Friday), presiding officers started counting. That process has been completed," Utloile Silaigwana, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, told reporters.
Mugabe is certain of a landslide victory after opposition leader and first round winner Morgan Tsvangirai boycotted Friday's run-off poll.
While Zimbabwe had to wait five weeks for the results in the first round on March 29, government sources said 84-year-old Mugabe was expected to be inaugurated on Sunday before flying off to an African Union summit in Egypt.
"The inauguration is tomorrow at 10 am (0800 GMT)," said one source close to Mugabe.
A visitor to State House, his official residence, said tents were being set up for the ceremony which will mark the start of his sixth term.
Mugabe, who has led the former British colony since independence in 1980, staged the run-off in defiance of a welter of calls for it to be shelved.
Tsvangirai pulled out of the contest last weekend after nearly 90 supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party were killed in attacks he blames on pro-Mugabe militias.
With Tsvangirai having been detained five times during the campaign, the United Nations and regional governments had said the atmosphere precluded the possibility of a free and fair election but Mugabe pushed on regardless.
Amid widespread reports that the electorate was being coerced into voting for Mugabe, Tsvangirai advised followers on Friday against futile gestures of defiance in what he derided as an "exercise in mass intimidation".
"If you must vote for Mr Mugabe because of threats to your life, then do so," he said.
In some areas of the country, there were allegations officials were inspecting ballot papers before they were placed in boxes.
Those who failed to cast their ballots could be easily identified as each voter had a finger daubed with red ink.
The ballot was widely denounced by the West with US President George W. Bush announcing he had directed sanctions be drawn up against the regime given its "blatant disregard for the Zimbabwean people's democratic will and human rights".
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown described the election as "a new low" and said the international community was coming together against Mugabe's "illegitimate" rule.
The United States and European Union imposed sanctions, including a travel ban and a freeze on bank accounts, against Mugabe's inner circle after he allegedly rigged his 2002 re-election -- a move frequently blamed by Africa's oldest leader for the country's economic woes.
Despite the build-up of diplomatic pressure, the MDC suffered a blow when South Africa blocked a move at the UN to declare the election illegitimate.
The US and its European allies had pushed for a resolution that would have stated the results "could have no credibility or legitimacy" but South Africa argued the Security Council was not in the business of certifying elections.
The council instead merely issued an oral statement expressing "deep regret" that the election went ahead.
"Yesterday's event was not an election, it's still something to be defined in the dictionary of mankind. It's an unbelievable sham, such a farce," said MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa.
"For anyone to try and rescue this regime is a travesty of justice. It's in complicity of the theft of democracy.... Mbeki is letting down the masses of the people of Zimbabwe by acting as a shield for a rogue regime."
Mbeki is the region's official mediator between the ruling party and the opposition in Zimbabwe but his refusal to publicly criticise his counterpart Mugabe has exasperated the MDC.
Viewed in the first years after independence as a post-colonial success story, Zimbabwe's economy has collapsed since thousands of white-owned farms were expropriated at the turn of the decade.
The one-time regional breadbasket now experiences major food shortages while inflation -- officially put at 165,000 percent but in reality many times higher -- is the world's highest.
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Mugabe
AFP