Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.
Watching from the top tier of the National Sports Stadium in Harare on Sunday, the tens of thousands of green caps waving in the air made it all look like a celebration. But it all felt more like a farewell party.
President Robert Mugabe stood in the back of a Ford truck, waving his own cap back at the crowd. Could this campaign, in which he has addressed the fewest rallies to date, be his last?
A whole generation of Zimbabweans has known no other leader but Mugabe but, on Sunday, even among his cheering supporters, there was the feeling that it might be over for Mugabe.
From the platitudes of his officials to Mugabe's own speech, which sounded like a farewell, there were many clues to suggest it was indeed the veteran ruler's swan song.
Few can imagine a life without Mugabe, even on the most mundane things: that booming voice on their radios on national days, delivered in fine English with that biting wit that has withered many foes over the years, or those many defiant speeches on foreign platforms, beating down one imperialist or the other.
But now, after 33 years, many are daring to dream of a Zimbabwe without Mugabe, whether or not he is declared the winner of this week's election. Even if he wins, which his critics say is likely because of claims of widespread fraud, few believe he will finish his term in office.
At the stadium, there were whispered undertones that this was it for "Mudhara" – the old man.
"We won't forget you, Mudhara," one youth in a Zanu-PF headscarf shouted, drawing stares first, and then cheers from supporters around him.
In his speech, Mugabe himself appeared to sense it, dwelling on the legacy he was "bequeathing" to the future generations. He wanted to be remembered as the man who gave dignity back to black Zimbabweans, he said.
"Once, we were afraid of the white man. We had too much respect for him. But now, future generations will no longer be afraid," he bellowed. Young people, because of his policies, no longer felt they could rely only on the white man for their livelihood. "Now you young people can do it for yourselves."
He hoped young people would learn a new model of economics, he said. "We need to change the economics our children learn. It conditions them to be servants, to be workers. We want a curriculum that teaches them to be owners, to be masters of themselves."
There will never be agreement on Mugabe's legacy. He is a more complex figure than reports about him suggest. But what is certain is that, whatever goodwill his war record earned him and his successes in health and education early in his rule, many young Zimbabweans will remember his disastrous economic policy.
Between 1999 and 2008, the peak of the crisis, the economy shrank by 45%. Still, he once told an interviewer that he could not imagine anybody else could have "managed the economy better than I did".
Political repression and violence have also been a hallmark of his rule.
Miles Tendi of Oxford University says Mugabe's rhetoric chimes with nationalist sentiments in Zimbabwe and on the continent. "There is an African constituency that he appeals to," says Tendi.
One Zimbabwean summed it up well on Twitter on Wednesday: "I'm sure I'm not the only Zimbabwean with a complicated love-hate relationship with Mugabe."