Crisis in Zimbabwe

The ruling party appears on the brink of disintegration.

His Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu PF), which has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980 is disintegrating into tribal fiefdoms.

The party's 5th National Congress ended on Saturday evening without any agreement on crucial amendments to the party's constitution, which has a bearing on the selection of Mr Mugabe's successor.One of the major constitutional proposals is a demand by party members for the scrapping of a clause that ensures that the party votes along tribal lines for the top posts in the presidium.

Members from the south western parts of the country want the position of party chairman and first vice president reserved for former members of the Patriotic Front - Zimbabwe African People's Union (PF Zapu).

ZAPU is the ruling party of dictator Robert Mughabe. The party can't seem to figure out who will succeed Mughabe. Mughabe has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980. He took a relatively stable country and turned into a banana republic that once had inflation rates in the tens of thousands.

Two years ago, a tainted election lead to a power sharing agreement between Mughabe and Morgan Tsvangirai.

Zimbabwe Election Results In

After more than a month, the election results are finally in.

Zimbabwe's opposition party is proposing sharing power with President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, but not with Mugabe.

Opposition leader Tendai Biti rejects official results calling for a presidential runoff and says the only way to resolve the impasse is with a "government of national healing."

He told reporters the opposition's presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai should form a unity government but that Mugabe should surrender power.

Official results released Friday said Tsvangirai won 47.9 percent of the vote to Mugabe's 43.2 percent.

This sets up a run off election between the two. The conventional wisdom has been that Mughabe has delayed the results in order to intimidate his opponents before the run off. We will continue to track.

Mughabe Turns Up the Heat

Robert Mughabe continued his campaign of intimidation.

Armed riot police raided the headquarters of Zimbabwe's main opposition
party on Friday and detained scores of people in the biggest crackdown on the
MDC since disputed elections last month, officials said.

The Movement for Democratic Change says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat President Robert Mugabe in the March 29 vote, and initial results showed it had also ended the ruling party's 28-year hold on parliament.

A delay to the presidential result and a recount of some parliamentary votes has brought growing international pressure on Mugabe, 84, and stoked fears of bloodshed in a country already suffering an economic collapse.

Dozens of riot police detained around 100 MDC supporters who were taken away in a crowded police bus, a Reuters witness said. The MDC said 200 to 250 police took part in the raid and they also took away computers used by the election command centre.

Meanwhile, the election results have still not been announced. Keep in mind there will likely be a run off because of convoluted Zimbabwean election laws that no one really understands. Also, keep in mind that there is three weeks between the time that results are announced and the new election. Mughabe continues to withhold the election results while he continues his brazen campaign of intimidating and arresting the opposition. The world has stood largely silent while Mughabe has brazenly run a campaign of terror and intimidation while also brazenly refusing to announce the election results. The UN, the AU, and most world leaders have been silent despite the systematic violation of human rights by a vicious dictator desperate to hold onto power.


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Zimbabwe and Fan Umpires

Have you ever watched a baseball game when an umpire totally blew the call? You have thousands of screaming fans acting as umpires. Invariably, you will have an announcer proclaim that there is only one opinion that counts, the real umpire. That's what I thought of when I read this piece.

South Africa — The Zimbabwean opposition leader won his nation's disputed presidential election, the top U.S. envoy to Africa told reporters Thursday.

The opposition has claimed its leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe outright March 29. Independent Zimbabwean observers also say Tsvangirai won, though not by enough to avoid a runoff. Meanwhile, Zimbabweans still await the results, with the opposition accusing Mugabe of withholding them while he plots how to keep power. The octogenarian Mugabe has led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.

If you have been following the aftermath of the Zimbabwean elections, it should come as no surprise that the opposition leader did in fact get more votes, if votes were counted fairly. Of course, he did. If Mughabe had won, the results would have been announced immediately. On the other hand, he didn't win and thus more than three weeks later results are still not in. Thus, we have the top U.S. envoy saying something close followers already know. Yet, just like with the bad call in baseball, there is only one opinion that counts and that opinion hasn't been rendered.

The U.S. envoy can state the obvious but in the meantime Mughabe refuses to release the official results. He is doing this likely because there will be a runoff and there are three weeks between the official results being released and the runoff. In the meantime, he is intimidating and killing so that the run off elections have a different result than what the U.S. envoy sees from the initial elections.

Three Weeks and Counting: Zimbabwe on the Brink

It has been three weeks since the elections in Zimbabwe and still the results are not in.

Zimbabwe’s election crisis continues, three weeks after a vote that seemingly brought an end to the rule of President Robert Mugabe. But official results of that election have still not been released, and election officials have announced plans for a recount of both the presidential and parliamentary votes in 23 districts. In a separate development, the Mugabe government has accused opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of treason, saying that he plotted with former colonial power Britain to force regime change in Zimbabwe.

There is a great line in the movie Blood Diamonds "this is Africa". What is currently happening in Zimbabwe represents that statement to a T. Much of this has to do with nothing more than political gamesmanship. Only in the United States, political gamesmanship involves legislative stunts and posturing. In Africa, it involves intimidation, mass arrests, and even murder.

Obviously, I can't get into anyone's head however here is what I surmise is going on. It appears that there will be a run off election between Mughabe and his opponent, Tsvangirari. A run off happens three weeks after election results are announced for an initial election. It appears that Mughabe is stalling and in the meantime he is strong arming and intimidating anyone he can so that the runoff go his way.

We have already heard about a mass raid of a hotel that held reporters in the immediate aftermath of the election. Furthermore, troops are storming the country trying to intimidate the citizenry.

Zimbabwean soldiers went house to house in a poor suburb of the capital Harare on Friday, beating up men and youths shortly before embattled President Robert Mugabe was due to give his first address to the nation since last month's elections.

What is happening is nothing short of a dictator imposing his will so that he sways the elections while the world watches. Like I said...this is Africa.

Zimbabwe on the Edge

This article paints a rather grim picture...

Zimbabwe’s opposition on Saturday accused President Robert Mugabe of
deploying militias for a war to reverse the result of last weekend’s
election.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Mugabe was ”preparing a war on the people” and deploying loyal forces, including liberation war veterans, ahead of a presidential runoff vote."

Militants are being rehabilitated,” Tsvangirai told a press conference, adding that the central bank was printing money ”for the finance of violence”.

...

Under electoral law a presidential runoff must be held three weeks after results are released. So the longer the results take, the more time [Robert Mugabe's party] ZANU-PF has to organize.

Analysts believe Mugabe will use his control of state apparatus, including the security forces, as well as pro-government militias to intimidate MDC supporters.

Past readers of my work know that this situation is starting to look an awful lot like the near genocide in Kenya. It is clear that Mugabe will do whatever is necessary to hold onto power. It is also clear that violence and corruption are two things he is very familiar with and thus will be in his reportoire now.

Zimbabwe Again on the Brink

Yesterday, I actually believed that Robert Mugabe would cede power following his decisive loss in the elections over the past weekend. I guess I forgot the nature of the tyrant and expected him to act like something he isn't. Now, comes word that paramilitary have raided a hotel used by the opposition.

Raids on opposition party offices and the rounding up of foreign journalists are threatening to push Zimbabwe further toward confrontation between current President Robert Mugabe and the apparent winner of national elections.

Police raided the Meikles hotel, which is used by the opposition, Movement for Democratic Change, and ransacked some of the rooms. Riot police also surrounded another hotel housing foreign journalists, York Lodge, and took away several of them, according to a man who answered the phone there.

"Mugabe has started a crackdown," Movement for Democratic Change secretary-general Tendai Biti told The Associated Press. "It is quite clear he has unleashed a war."

Things remain tense in Zimbabwe and they could easily descend into civil war like it did in Kenya.

Mugabe Officially Out in Zimbabwe

The word from the AP is that the challenger in the race has declared victory...

The main opposition party claimed outright victory Wednesday for its leader Morgan Tsvangirai, saying he had won 50.3 percent of the vote compared to 43.8 percent for President Robert Mugabe.

The ruling ZANU-PF party rejected the opposition's claims, saying that it would await the full results from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, which has not yet published the outcome of Saturday's presidential poll.

Mugabe's reign of terror on that nation is difficult to quantify. When he took over Zimbabwe was on its way toward economic prosperity. Here is how one article described the difference...

When Mafu arrived in Makokoba, Bulawayo was still a prosperous city dominated by the white-owned businesses and farms that made Zimbabwe one of Africa's richest regions. Two years ago, as President Mugabe's land grab destroyed the economy, Mafu lost his job as a cleaner.

"When the Europeans were here, we could cope," he said. "I had money to buy food and a clinic handed out free drugs. Now we have no jobs, no income, inflation is 1,000 per cent and when we go to hospital they ask us for money. If we have none, we are turned away."

The Zimbabwean Health Ministry has conceded that 63 people died of starvation in Bulawayo last month. According to a prominent critic of the government, Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, the real figure is many times higher. He estimates that 1,000 people die from lack of food each month around Bulawayo alone.

Mugabe managed to destroy most of Zimbabwe's natural resources and with it the economy at large. Just recently, their inflation rate passed 100,000%. Of course, Mugabe's reign of terror spread throughout Zimbabwe's society. He subverted civil rights, created abject poverty, and confronted all adversaries with a heavy handed approach.

Hopefully, this is the dawn of a new day in Zimbabwe.

Mughabe to Cede Power?

That is the speculative word from the Associated Press...

Advisers of President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai are discussing the possibility of Zimbabwe's longtime leader relinquishing power, The Associated Press learned Tuesday.

Independent observers say trends indicate Tsvangirai won the most votes in the presidential race, but not enough to avoid a runoff — a prospect that could be humiliating to the 84-year-old president.

No returns from Saturday's presidential vote have been made public, fueling fears of rigging. Mugabe has been accused of stealing past elections, though that was before Zimbabwe's economy collapsed and leading members of his own party openly defied him.

A person close to the Electoral Commission told the AP that Mugabe has been informed he is far behind Tsvangirai in preliminary election results, and that there could be an uprising if Mugabe were declared the winner. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said aides to both men were discussing Mugabe's ceding power.

This would be welcomed news. Mughabe has run that country so deep into the ground that its inflation rate recently topped 100,000% no misprint. Also, unlesses he cedes power, there will likely be the sort of violence that we saw in the aftermath of the Kenyan elections.

Zimbabwe On the Brink

Tensions are mounting in Zimbabwe as the election results still haven't been taliied.

Riot police in armored carriers were deployed in two of Harare's restive townships on Monday night amid long delays in issuing Zimbabwe's election results which have raised tensions.

A resident of one of the townships, opposition strongholds, said a convoy of riot police in about 20 vehicles moved through the area.

"There are a lot of patrols here," said the resident, adding people had been told to stay off the streets.

Concern grew that long delays in issuing the election results hid attempts by President Robert Mugabe to cling to power by rigging.

More than 48 hours after polls closed, only 66 of 210 parliamentary constituencies had been declared, showing Mugabe's ZANU-PF party one seat ahead of the main opposition MDC. Two of his ministers lost their seats.

Zimbabwe is on the brink of being the second African nation in less than six months to face chaos following elections. In December, riots broke out in Kenya following what many thought were rigged elections. That crisis was averted when the two opponents in the election agreed to a powersharing arrangement. More than one thousand people died in the fighting that broke out prior to the agreement.

Zimbabwe the Next Kenya?

Election results still haven't been announced in Zimbabwe's election from yesterday

Tension has been mounting in Zimbabwe's capital as the country's election commission refused to announce the results of Saturday's poll, fuelling rumours that President Robert Mugabe had lost despite widespread vote-rigging, and was planning to declare victory regardless.

...

Security forces were deployed in Harare on Sunday, hours after the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) announced that it had won the presidential and parliamentary elections despite widespread vote-rigging.

George Charamba, Mr Mugabe's spokesman, warned Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader: "He announces results, declares himself and the MDC winner and then what? Declare himself president of Zimbabwe? It is called a coup d'état and we all know how coups are handled."

Mughabe has ruled Zimbabwe since the early 1980's. The economy is in such dire straits that it's inflation rate reached 100,000%. He was facing a stiff challenge in this campaign and delays in the results immediately raise the suspicion of funny business. When Kenya faced similar conditions it nearly lead to genocide. The situation remains fluid.

Zimbabwe's Inflation Now 100,00%

Yes, you did read that correctly.

The year-on-year inflation rate for the month of January 2008, as measured by the all items Consumer Price Index (CPI) stood at 100,580.2 per cent, gaining 34,367.9 percentage points on the December rate of 66,212.3 per cent," the Central Statistical Office (CSO) said.

"This means that prices as measured by the all items CPI increased by an average of 100,580.2 per cent between January 2007 and January 2008."

"Inflation of food and non-alcoholic beverages reached 105,428.0 per cent while non-food inflation was 97,885.7 per cent."

The rule of Robert Mughabe, since the early '80's, will be remembered for the systematic subversion of civil rights, the dismantling of unions, and of course taking a once promising economy to the brink of total collapse.

I remember attending a meeting on the civil rights situation in Zimbabwe. The one thing I remember was that Mughabe instituted a law in which any meeting of three or more people was no longer legal. This is the sort of systematic violation of civil rights that Mughabe has perpetuated since taking over.

Zimbabwe continues to be one of many African nations in dire straits, and I believe the world is sitting by while our next sphere of disaster bubbles to the surface.