Zimbabweans are going to the polls on Monday in the first vote since Robert Mugabe was ousted in November, but BBC Africa editor Fergal Keane says the legacy of his 37-year rule cannot be overlooked.
They simply cannot imagine defeat.
Crowds of Zanu-PF supporters streamed into the national stadium in the capital, Harare, on Saturday morning and every person I spoke to had the same conviction: Emmerson Mnangagwa, who succeeded Mr Mugabe as president, was going to win. And win big.
"It's gonna be an absolutely resounding victory for Emmerson Mnangagwa," said Stanley Bote, a young businessman from Harare.
"You have to consider all he has achieved since coming into office."
Many others simply laughed when I suggested the possibility of an opposition victory.
Inside the stadium bands played, rappers rapped. The party went on.
Zanu-PF has massive financial resources, control of the state media and immense powers of patronage.
In the nearly 40 years since independence, winning by fair means or foul is a Zanu-PF tradition.
At the heart of President Mnangagwa's campaign lies an implicit confidence that Zimbabweans will be willing to forget, if not forgive, his own and his party's appalling record of misrule and human rights abuses.