Zimbabwe Election Chaos Grows

The Zimbabwe state media have made an unbelievable announcement, namely that Robert Mugabe will face a run-off election against Morgan Tsvangirai for the presidency. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Mr. Tsvangirai’s party, meanwhile claims its candidate has secured 50.3% of the vote and has been elected. The run-off is three weeks away, and one anticipates state-sponsored violence and wide-spread fraud.

This morning’s headline in the Herald (which is to Mr. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF regime what Pravda was to Stalin’s) “Zanu-PF, MDC heading for tie.” Yet, Tsvangirai. says that there are some results his party is disputing. Officially, that has the effect of holding back official announcements. Politically, it means that he hopes to find enough evidence of fraud to embarrass ZANU-PF and to use it in the run-off campaign.

Rumors have circulated in Harare and elsewhere that the MDC and members of the president’s staff and security forces have held discussions on an exit strategy for Mr. Mugabe. This is almost certainly true despite official denials on both sides, but it has come to nothing for a simple reason. Mr. Mugabe is not the only man who stands to lose a job. MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti told the Voice of America, “There are hawks and doves in Mugabe’s courtyard who have school fees to pay in South Africa, Australia and so forth who are saying, Shefe [a terms of endearment], you cannot go. The courtiers are propping him up but the old man is tired, he doesn’t want anymore. I think he’s tired, I think he’s tired. He has lost the energy.”

By the same token, the MDC has little enough reason to cut a deal at this stage. After all, having waited so long, what does a bit longer matter? Especially, if waiting means that the thugs in the Mugabe regime wind up on trial instead of enjoying some negotiated immunity. The Times quoted a Southern African diplomat involved in the talks, “Even if he [Mugabe] swung it his way, no one at home or abroad would believe a word of it and the discredited regime would face sanctions and no future.” The MDC has time on its side and very little to lose. Mr. Mugabe is 83 and will eventually leave office if only in a coffin.

The parliamentary elections that were held on Saturday also are showing a similar pattern, namely that the ZANU-PF is reluctant to announce the will of the people. The Associated Press states, “The Electoral Commission has released results for 188 of the 210 parliamentary seats — giving the opposition 96 seats and Mugabe’s party 92. Seven Cabinet ministers have lost their seats, according to those results.” Cabinet ministers always get the safest seats to defend. Losing seven suggests this race isn’t anywhere near as close as the Electoral Commission says. But in Zimbabwe it isn’t how the people vote that counts, its how Mr. Mugabe counts the votes.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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