Hope for Zimbabwe

Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

After years of insanity, there is some hope in Zimbabwe. The Telegraph reports that a deal is close which will see Mugabe remain President, but many powers transferred to Morgan Tsvangirai as his Prime Minister.

As much as I would like to see Mugabe put on trial, a peaceful solution is desirable, and if it has to involve immunity for Mugabe and his henchmen, so be it.

While anyone is better than Mugabe, it is worth noting Tsvangirai is no angel, and Zimbabwe path  back to relative peace and prosperity could be a very long one.

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Mugabe clings on

Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 7:34 am

Mugabe is fighting on and back to his usual tactics of intimidation.

Despite there being no release of election results, there will be a run-off election for President.

No doubt they have not released the count from the first round because they are already counting the votes for the second round.

I predict Mugabe will be declared to win a narrow victory – say 52% to 48%.

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Zimbabwe looking bad

Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 10:37 am

The latest news is not good.

Mugabe has kept the results of the presidential poll locked up for almost a week now. And police have started arresting foreign journalists and raiding the offices of the opposition party.

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Zimbabwe Results

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 9:19 am

It’s taking Robert Mugabe a long time to rig the results of the Zimbabwe elections. He used to be far more efficient at it, and do it within a day.  Now we are up to three days and no results.

How can any results be credible?

I loved the line from the Mugabe Ambassador to the UN:

A Zimbabwe diplomat told CNN the delay in releasing the presidential results is simply to ensure every vote is counted.

Indeed, but first they have to create all the extra votes for Mugabe, so they can count them. And it is a new system of counting votes that you only give out a total at the end, rather than any progress results.

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Can Mugabe steal the election again?

Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

It will be interesting to see if Mugabe manages to steal the Zimbabwe election.  The signs so far do not look good:

African Union election observers also raised concerns about 8,450 voters registered to a patch of deserted land in north Harare.

And where real people are trying to vote:

As voting started it became clear that large numbers of people were being turned away from the polling booths.

In Chitungwiza The Sunday Telegraph witnessed seven people being turned away in the space of five minutes after being told their names were not on the voters roll or that they had not got the correct identification.

 We also see the ultimate end goal of Working for Families type largesse:

He also attempted to bolster his support through the “agricultural mechanisation programme”, a thinly disguised vote buying exercise in which mountains of farm equipment have been given away at Zanu PF election rallies.

The tactic appeared to have convinced some supporters to stay loyal. Christine Machada, 46, a mother of six who received a harvester and a tractor, said she had voted for him again, although her 25 acre farm was producing few crops.

Yep, give money or tractors to people so they vote for you. At least that is legal.

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Posted in International Politics | 29 Comments »