Voters go to the polls on Saturday in simultaneous presidential, parliamentary, senate and council elections. Mugabe, 84, is seeking a sixth consecutive term as president of the southern African nation.

Mugabe faces three opposition candidates, two of whom have a good chance of winning. Mugabe's regime may be on shaky ground amid allegations of corruption and a failing economy.

In what critics labeled a vote-buying exercise, Mugabe recently increased the salaries of the police, army and teachers and also handed out machinery to black farmers. Zimbabwean officials deny the moves had anything to do with the election.

Mugabe has been in office since the country, then called Rhodesia, gained independence from Britain in 1980.

He was once respected as a liberation hero, but observers now criticize him for repressive tactics and corruption, and blame him for the country's dire economic state.