Will Mugabe permit it to survive?

ZimbabweÂ’s main opposition party said Sunday that it had won a landslide victory, insisting that unofficial election results showed that the Movement for Democratic Change had unseated President Robert G. Mugabe, the man who has led this nation for 28 years.

Those results had been compiled by adding the vote counts posted at thousands of individual polling stations, and were not formally released by the government. Indeed, the nationÂ’s chief election officer warned that the oppositionÂ’s boasts were premature and asked people to wait for official totals.

People did just that, anxiously watching the government television station on Sunday for announcements about the election the day before. But instead of news they were shown irrelevant fare like a program about biodegradable Chinese plastic and a documentary about the NetherlandsÂ’ 1974 soccer team.

Near midnight, the election commissioner, George Chiweshe, finally announced that the official results would begin coming out at 6 a.m. Monday. At the appointed hour no results were forthcoming. “It is of absolute necessity that at each stage the result be meticulously analyzed, witnessed and confirmed,” he said. Soon after the designated time, an election official began laboriously reading results, but only of six parliamentary races.

So once again, we see electoral shennaigans in Zimbabwe.

I'm still waiting to see if these threats are carried out.

Zimbabwe's security forces, which have thrown their weight firmly behind Mr. Mugabe, said before the election they would not allow a victory declaration before counting was complete.

Government spokesman George Charamba warned the opposition against such claims. "It is called a coup d'etat and we all know how coups are handled," he told the state-owned Sunday Mail.

And since in some areas there are riot police n the streets and warnings for the people to remain indoors, the possibility of Mugabe refusing to honor the results of the election appears to be quite high.

Posted by: Greg at 10:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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