Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, said yesterday 14 of its officials had been abducted.

The MDC, formed just nine months ago, presents the single biggest challenge in 20 years to President Robert Mugabe's one-party rule, in polling today and tomorrow.

An independent opinion poll last week suggested the MDC will take at least 70 of the parliament's 120 seats, the vast majority of which are currently held by the ruling Zimbabwean African National Unity-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party.

The MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, said this week that if his party does not win he will consider the election to have been rigged. ZANU sources said the party expects to lose between 35 and 40 seats.

This weekend's election has been awaited with a mixture of anticipation and dread by Zimbabwe's 5.1 million voters.

The clamour for change is evident from the fact that two million more people have registered to vote than in the last election.

However, pre-election violence has claimed 32 lives, mostly of MDC supporters, and left hundreds injured.

Many were attacked by the war veterans who have been occupying 1,600 white-owned farms since last April, with government approval.

An MDC spokesman said yesterday that 14 election monitors abducted on Thursday night from near the second city of Bulawayo had not been found. "They are targeting our polling agents because it makes it easier to rig the elections," the MDC legal secretary, David Coltart, said.

President Mugabe held his final election rallies in Harare yesterday, travelling from one to the other by helicopter.

Morgan Tsvangirai travelled the city by car. He was stoned by government supporters at one point but escaped unhurt.

International and local observers will be deployed to all polling stations.

An opposition candidate in Zimbabwe's election was in a coma yesterday after suspected pro-government supporters beat him with iron bars and sticks and left him for dead.

Mr Zachariah Rioga, a 53-year-old candidate for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was transferred to a Harare hospital early yesterday morning.

"Mr Rioga was campaigning in Masvingo South when so-called war veterans attacked him," his party said in a statement.

"The war veterans beat him with iron bars, sticks and other implements and left him for dead. He has yet to regain consciousness," the statement added.