[1] Speaking at a rally in Beitbridge on 23 February, he likened Makoni to "a frog trying to inflate itself up to the size of an ox" that was sure to burst, while calling Tsvangirai a Western puppet.
[4] He promised increased agricultural production and the reform and improvement of the mining sector,[5] and he urged the party to acknowledge past failures, such as in the area of infrastructure development.
[3] The Herald, Zimbabwe's state-owned daily newspaper, reported on 29 February that Retired Major General Paradzayi Zimondi, the head of the prison service, gave his officers an order to vote for Mugabe.
[8][9] He said that Tsvangirai and Makoni would reverse land reform if they were elected, and he vowed to resign from his post and return to his farm to protect it if Mugabe were defeated.
[15] The European Union expressed concern on 10 March that "the humanitarian, political and economic situation in Zimbabwe and conditions on the ground" might "endanger the holding of free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections".
[21] Human Rights Watch stated that the Electoral Commission was inadequately prepared for the polls and that the opposition was not being treated equally to the governing ZANU-PF by the authorities.
[22] The government rejected these accusations; Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said that both ZANU-PF and the MDC were represented on the Electoral Commission and that Human Rights Watch's report reflected an agenda.
[27] MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti claimed on 23 March that correspondence had been discovered indicating that the Electoral Commission had requested the printing of nine million ballots, far more than the number of registered voters.
Biti also said that 600,000 postal ballots had been ordered for police, soldiers,[28][29] civil servants working away from home, and diplomats and their families who are posted in other countries.
Tsvangirai claimed Mugabe could not win the election due to the state of the economy, a record of alleged repression, and his age, but would try to steal it.
[33] On 23 March, he claimed that most members of the police and the Central Intelligence Organisation were "behind the people" and "committed to defend the new Zimbabwe", despite the statements from leading figures in the security forces expressing support for Mugabe.
He said that members of the security forces had "nothing to fear" if he won the election, as long as they "protect[ed] the national voices of Zimbabweans" and were "committed to the constitutional order in this country".
"[34] Another survey, conducted by Dr. Joseph Kurebwa, a lecturer in the department of political science at the University of Zimbabwe, as an independent consultant was reported by The Herald on 28 March as predicting that Mugabe would win a first round majority with 56% of the vote, followed by Tsvangirai with 26–27%, Makoni with 13–14%, and Towungana with 0.2%.
[35] Dr. Kurebwa is seen by many as a ZANU PF functionary in the mould of Professor Claude Mararike, who has been making the same predictions since 2000 based on what he terms a simulation of voting patterns in Zimbabwe on a sample selected by him.
[38] His campaign manager, Nkosana Moyo, said on 26 March that, in addition to a national unity government, Makoni would establish some sort of truth and reconciliation process if he won the election.
According to Mugabe, the Zimbabwean economy had not yet recovered because it was linked too closely to the West, but he said during the campaign that continuing the "Look East" policy would soon lead to economic recovery.
[42] In a joint statement on 27 March, Tsvangirai, Makoni, and Mutambara said that independent analysis of the voter lists demonstrated that there were major discrepancies and alleged the existence of "a very well thought out and sophisticated plan to steal the election from us".
[45] Tsvangirai said that officials and election workers should ignore any instructions to falsify the results, and he called on voters to stay at their polling stations after voting so that they could prevent fraud.
[44] Mugabe concluded his campaign on 28 March with a rally near Harare, vowing to win a victory that would deal "a final blow" to the British, who he described as the puppeteers of Tsvangirai and Makoni.