Prime Minister Stephen Harper added his name to the growing number of world leaders who have condemned Friday's presidential election in Zimbabwe as corrupt.
Harper said that he may be prepared to announce sanctions against the African nation and encouraged other nations to pressure Robert Mugabe's regime.
"Our government has condemned the corrupt vote in the strongest possible terms," he said in a speech for B'nai Brith International on Friday. "We are working with the international community to bring in strong measures to pressure the Mugabe regime which has illegitimately stolen the election."
Harper called Friday's runoff election "an ugly perversion of democracy."
"Because no opposition candidate was fully engaged in the runoff election, Canada refuses to accept that the results are an indication of the will of the Zimbabwean people. This 'election' was stolen," Harper said in a statement released Friday night.
"We call on the Government of Zimbabwe and the Movement for Democratic Change to work with each other and with regional and international mediators toward a negotiated political settlement to end this crisis, which continues to damage peace, security and stability in Zimbabwe and the wider region.
Voters intimidated
Reports from Zimbabwe have indicated widespread voter intimidation Friday.
Some residents said they were forced to vote, others feared violent retribution, and some were threatened with arson.
"What is happening today is not an election. It is an exercise in mass intimidation," Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said at a news conference.
Despite reports of intimidation, it appears the national election had a low voter turnout. The one-candidate runoff vote follows a presidential election in March, during which Tsvangirai seemed to pose a legitimate challenge to the longtime rule of President Robert Mugabe.
Tsvangirai pulled out of the race last Sunday over allegations of state-sponsored violence. As a result, Mugabe, who has ruled the country since 1980, is the only candidate in the unusual runoff vote.
Mugabe has faced mounting international criticism and analysts said reports of voting-day intimidation are not surprising.
In the capital city Harare, armed paramilitary police and pro-ruling party militants patrolled the streets while marshals escorted voters to the polls.
"I've got no option but to go and vote so that I can be safe," said one young voter.
Tsvangirai, whom many looked to as the face of change for Zimbabwe, has been hiding out on-and-off in the Dutch embassy in the days leading up to the election.
He said the results from the Friday vote would "reflect only the fear of the people of Zimbabwe," The Associated Press reported.
Tsvangirai has made it clear to his supporters they should vote for Mugabe if they feel threatened or at risk.
"God knows what is in your heart. Don't risk your lives," he wrote.
The opposition leader's name remains on the ballot, with organizers saying he dropped out too late to print new ones. But Tsvangirai has asked his supporters not to vote for him in order to prevent further violence.
"Quite a few of them are likely to be worried about their personal safety because there have been these mobs of Mugabe supporters going around saying people have to vote," Peter Godwin, author of "When a Crocodile Eats the Sun," told CTV's Canada AM.
"When you vote in Zimbabwe your finger is dyed with an indelible dye and the worry is these mobs will go around after the election checking to see that everybody has this dye and if they don't they'll be beaten up or worse."
Godwin said Tsvangirai had little choice to pull out, and if he had remained in the race, he had little chance of winning.
"I think even if he had stayed in, the playing field was so unlevel -- he wasn't being allowed to campaign, he wasn't being allowed to hold rallies, he wasn't being able to advertise -- the whole thing was a farce. It already wasn't an election," Godwin said.
International criticism
Roy Bennett, the opposition party's treasurer, who is in exile in neighbouring South Africa, called on the world to acknowledge that Mugabe's rule is illegitimate.
"The whole election is a farce," he told Associated Press Television News. "Nobody should endorse that election" and "all pressure that is possible ... should be brought to bear" on Mugabe by African leaders.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. would bring the matter before the UN Security Council.
"Those operating in Zimbabwe should know that there are those ... who believe that the Security Council should consider sanctions," she said. "We intend to bring up the issue of Zimbabwe in the council. We will see what the council decides to do."
The spokesperson for the EU said the election's result will be "hollow and meaningless."
Earlier this week, Nelson Mandela broke his silence on the crisis, calling Mugabe's actions a "tragic failure of leadership."
Heidi Holland, author of "Dinner with Mugabe," said she believed election turnout will be higher in rural areas, where voters are more vulnerable to intimidation.
"I also feel that Mugabe is doing more -- I hope I'm wrong -- than winning a deeply flawed presidential runoff," she said.
"I think he's also getting revenge against his own people, possibly even attempting to wipe out the opposition once and for all in the rural areas, because he has gone back to very much a war footing in the rural areas."
Election observers from The African Union, the main regional Southern African Development Community and African parliamentarians were struggling to monitor the election, with too few authorized monitors to make a difference.
With files from The Canadian Press
