Mugabe holds final rallies ahead of Zimbabwe vote

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe held final campaign rallies Thursday on the eve of a one-man election denounced as a sham by the West after the opposition leader pulled out of the contest.
As former South African president Nelson Mandela added to international pressure on Mugabe over violence in the country, the Zimbabwe leader defiantly rejected all criticism and portrayed his rival Morgan Tsvangirai as a stooge of ex-colonial power Britain.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change's number two was granted bail by a court after he was charged with treason, but Tsvangirai remained holed up in the Dutch embassy in Harare four days after withdrawing from the vote.
Mugabe's last major election appearance was to take place in Chitungwiza, just outside the capital Harare, a traditional opposition stronghold. Several thousand people gathered in a shopping mall ahead of his arrival, many of them bussed in by Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.
ZANU-PF activists spent the morning knocking on doors, telling local people to attend Mugabe's campaign address. Some shops closed and streets in the area were deserted.
In a rally late Wednesday near the border with Mozambique, Mugabe castigated Britain and took a thinly veiled swipe at the Southern African Development Community, a 14-nation regional bloc which has urged him to postpone the vote.
International criticism of Mugabe has intensified, with Mandela speaking of a "tragic failure of leadership in our neighbouring Zimbabwe" in a rare public statement on the crisis late Wednesday.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday warned Zimbabwe's president against declaring victory in what she said will be an illegitimate run-off election this week.