| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Subsaharan |
| Anxious Zims await re-run |
| 2008-05-04 |
| After a month of not-so-subtle suspense, the results of the long-awaited presidential elections were finally released. The days that preceded the announcement were dark ones - broken limbs, burned huts, dead bodies and unofficial curfews were widely reported. The people were cynical from the beginning. Missing results, they said, meant the mother of all election riggings was underway. At the Domboshawa Election Command Centre, Beatrice Nyamupinda, newly elected Zanu-PF MP for Goromonzi West, thought there was no need for a recount. "For those of us who have been educated, this is just like going back to primary school. I won here and this recount is a waste of time." And now we have gone from recounts to a re-run of the presidential poll, because Mr Mugabe secured 43.2% of the vote to Mr Tsvangirai's 47.8%. Cash is hard to find, fuel has soared to an unbelievable billion Zimbabwe dollars a gallon on the black market, and large chunks of the city are constantly in darkness because of the power cuts. And Hararians have simply been too busy surviving to care about the new twists in their political fortunes. "In order to sustain a dictatorship, it is important to keep the people busy," says Daves Guzha in his topical new play The Two Leaders I Know, currently running at the Harare International Festival of The Arts. It is a different case for the politicians, though. The notion of a re-run has been pushed since the MDC prematurely claimed victory. What was once the opposition is relishing telling the press that Mr Mugabe is now the leader of the official opposition. Full page ads in the local press from the MDC are signed "President Elect" and "Morgan". The ads are headlined "Delayed democracy" and "Martyrs for democracy". "It is a tragedy that our own sons and daughters are being murdered, tortured and wounded for no other reason than that the regime believes they have voted for change," the MDC says. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 It is a tragedy that our own sons and daughters are being murdered Hardly a surprise ending here. A "tragedy" that Smith predicted decades previously and the West turned a blind eye to. Chickens home to roost once again in Africa. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-05-04 08:11 |