Latest:Taking a page from the Bush league playbook, Robert Mugabe and his cronies in Zanu-PF are putting pressure on the Zimbabwe Supreme Court to delay releasing the official election results which show that a runoff election between the challenger MorganTsvangirai and the 84 year old dictator is necessary. The Court delayed again today a decision on whether poll results should be released now. It will decide tomorrow whether to hear the argument from from the Election Commission that it does not have jurisdiction on an emergency basis. The glacial judicial process in playing into the hands of Mugabe supporters who want to prevent the loosing results from becoming official. Tsvangirai wrote in the Guardian that outside powers should assist in breaking Mugabe's "white knuckle grip" on power and help end his "suicidal reign" of twenty four years.President and dictator, Robert Mugabe, appears to have been soundly defeated in the presidential election held in Zimbabwe. Mugabe was once a respected icon of independence from colonial misrule, but in recent years took an increasingly violent and erratic path away from democracy towards a corrupt totalitarian regime. The people of Zimbabwe have suffered in the process. Prosperous white farmers who stayed behind after the white apartheid government was overthrown, were evicted by Mugabe as part of fulfilling his pledge for "land reform". His latest demand is for majority interest in all foreign owned businesses operating in the country. Inflation is rampant and the economy is in ruins. The unofficial winner according to reports from Harare appears to be Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change, a former colleague Mugabe had severely beaten for his opposition politics. Tsvangirai won 48% of the vote to Mugabe's 44%. Under Zimbabwe's constitution that result requires a run-off election. Whether the result holds up in the face of concerted election fraud remains to be determined.
Update: Zanu-PF, Robert Mugabe's party appears determined to fight a democratic change of power in Zimbabwe regardless of election results. MDC claims that it's presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, won a outright majority in the voting. Security forces have raided political opposition offices in Harare and detained a New York Times journalist. Military and veterans' organizations used in the past for violent action against democratic forces have been mobilized. The Independent reports election analysts have warned for days that the painfully slow announcement of official results concealed an effort to "pad" the numbers in constituencies where Zanu-PF won in order to manipulate the popular vote. In at least three constituencies the official turnout figure was 150 per cent of registered voters. To be continued.