HARARE, June 27 (AFP): Zimbabwe voted Friday in an election which was virtually certain to end in victory for President Robert Mugabe, but dismissed by the opposition as meaningless after it boycotted the poll. Amid accusations that voters were being forced to cast their ballots for Mugabe, his long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai urged supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party not to put their lives in danger.
Mugabe was also set to be denied international legitimacy with the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations saying only a government which reflected the will of the people would be recognised.
Despite state media predictions of a "massive" turnout, the number of voters queuing when polling stations opened at
7:00 am (0500 GMT) represented only a fraction of those seen in the first round which was won by Tsvangirai.
One of the first to vote was Danger Zvembabvu, a 50-year-old veteran of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war, but he cut a lonely figure as he waited for election officers to open the doors of a station in central Harare.
Tsvangirai said the election, which he decided to boycott after a wave of deadly attacks against his supporters, was shameful.
In some areas of the country, there were allegations officials were inspecting ballot papers before they were deposited in boxes.
A senior MDC activist in Mapanda, near the Mozambique border, said he had intended to spoil his paper but was confronted by an official from Mugabe's ZANU-PF party who demanded to see his voting slip.
The election comes some 13 weeks after an initial ballot which saw Mugabe beaten into second place with 43.2 percent against 47.9 percent for Tsvangirai.
The simultaneous March 29 presidential and legislative election also saw ZANU-PF lose control of parliament for the first time since independence from Britain in 1980.
The MDC says Mugabe has since reversed the odds in his favour through a campaign of violence and intimidation, claiming more than 80 of its supporters have been killed by ZANU-PF thugs.
Tsvangirai's name appeared on ballot papers after the official electoral commission said it was too late for him to withdraw.
Mugabe made clear in his final campaign rally he wants to continue as president after ruling uninterrupted since independence. While he would be willing to talk to the opposition, negotiations would begin only after he had won a sixth term.
Another report adds: Group of Eight foreign ministers warned Friday that they would not recognise Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government as he went ahead with a widely condemned election. The industrial powers, meeting in the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto, also stepped up pressure on Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programmes and pressed Myanmar to open up further to aid after its deadly cyclone.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined top diplomats of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia as Zimbabwe headed to the polls in a one-man run-off election.
They said that the results of the first round of voting on March 29 -- in which opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai topped Mugabe but fell short of a majority -- "must be respected."
Tsvangirai pulled out of the election and holed himself up in the Dutch embassy, citing deadly election violence and threats.
Rice said that the United States, which chairs the UN Security Council until the end of the month, would consult with other nations about "what next step we might need to take."
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that the election in his country's former colony was "one-sided in every aspect."
