EPWORTH, Zimbabwe — As he buttonholed voters less than two days before Zimbabwe’s general election, the opposition candidate worked the crowd alone and on foot. He bounced from voter to voter, a wide smile across his face, ready with a handshake and a joke.

In past elections, before Robert G. Mugabe was ousted in November after 37 years in power, opposition candidates were harassed by ZANU-PF, the governing party, and by the police. Their rallies were quashed, posters yanked down and candidates intimidated, often with violence.

“I’ve been doing my rallies, meeting the people, and there were no disturbances. Everything is going peacefully,” said the candidate, Batandai Masunda, who was running for ward councilor with the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance. “It’s a very big improvement,” he added.

How big an improvement was the critical question as Zimbabweans prepared to vote on Monday, the first time without Mr. Mugabe atop the ZANU-PF ticket since independence in 1980.