Zimbabwe Elections, An Update

I'm to speak tomorrow on the Zimbabwean situation as part of multiculturalism and world awareness week, so I thought I'd update myself and the blog on the Zimbabwean elections.


There is a lot of mixed information from multiple sources on the electoral results. It's hard to decide what to believe, which such contradictory news coming through the wires. As far as I can gather, Mugabe's party Zanu-PF, has lost the parliamentary elections officially to the MDC. However, Mugabe refuses to recognize these results and is trying to call for a recount. Despite court efforts to release the Presidential electoral votes, there is still an official silence on the results. MDC continue to claim that their leader has won with just over 50.3% of the votes, however another report suggests that they came in with just under 50%. This means that a run-off is more than likely on the cards. Problem is apparently there has been a militarization of Zimbabwe since the electoral results on March 31st. Mugabe is trying all is power to hold on to his positions. There is a rural 'campaign of terror' allegedly taking place. As I expected, the people are being heavily intimidated by 'hired mobs' into voting for Mugabe in the potential run-off. There's a host of stories already coming through of such violence and it seems with the second round of the elections around the corner, it is just going to get worse. Apparently over 80 members of the MDC opposition party have been assaulted or intimidated in some way since the election results. Despite this, their spirits have not been broken. It's amazing in the face of such oppression that people continue the struggle for freedom, but then again - that always seem to be the case in the awe inspiring case of Zimbabwe! I hope the best outcome for MDC, I admire it's members and most importantly - it's collective bravery in the face of tyranny and corruption. I hope that it's efforts pay off and that it's parliamentary victory will bring some sort of stabilization to the country.

However, I have a feeling that Mugabe will 'win' these so called presidential elections if it comes to a run off. If he continues to hold power as president, he will still be able to rule by decree at times and also has the power to veto legislation passed by parliament. This will have devastating limits on MDC's presence in parliament. What happens, only time will tell... but we are sure that the violence will unfortunately continue as Mugabe does everything he can to ensure that he still has some say in ruling 'his' country.

I'll update as events unfold, watch this space for more.