A top Zimbabwe Army general called on the nation’s soldiers to vote for President Robert Mugabe in a runoff or resign from the military, the official state newspaper reported Saturday.

Maj. Gen. Martin Chedondo, the army chief of staff, told soldiers at a target-shooting competition to leave the military if they did not support Mr. Mugabe, the newspaper, The Herald, reported.

“Soldiers are not apolitical,” General Chedondo was quoted as saying. “Only mercenaries are apolitical. We have signed up and agreed to fight and protect the ruling party’s principles of defending the revolution. If you have other thoughts, then you should remove that uniform.”

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He told soldiers at the Cleveland shooting range near here on Friday that Mr. Mugabe was the leader of Zimbabwe’s defense forces. “We should therefore stand behind our commander in chief,” The Herald reported that he had said.

In the past, Zimbabwe’s generals, most of them veterans of the war that led to independence from Britain in 1980, have vowed never to salute the opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, if he were to become president.

An International Crisis Group report released Wednesday said that top military commanders opposed to him had helped prevent a democratic transition after the March 29 election, in which he won the most votes, but not enough to avoid a runoff.

Reuters reported Saturday that Zimbabwe’s state-owned television said two members of the ruling party, ZANU-PF, had been shot dead in Mutoko, a rural district that has been gripped by political violence. The station, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, said supporters of Mr. Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change, were responsible for the killings. The Movement for Democratic Change has denied any involvement.