Zimbabwe’s still waiting (as are its neighbors):
Rigging fears were increasing in Zimbabwe on Tuesday three days after the election commission failed to release results from the presidential vote, in which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims to have ousted authoritarian President Robert Mugabe.
Only partial results from the parliamentary elections that were held concomitantly with presidential and local elections on March 29 have been released, showing the opposition enjoying a slight lead over Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party.
The election has received a little bit of coverage here, but it always seems to come without any background on why this election is worth paying attention to. While the story of Zimbabwe has at times been front page news in the UK, it has barely made the back pages in the US. And what’s that story? The man went from revolutionary hero – turning Rhodesia into Zimbabwe – to a desperate old king attempting to hold his entire country hostage as a means of remaining in power. Zimbabwe is an absolute wreck of a country with no functioning economy to speak of, an outflow of refugees, and a barely functioning political system.
Or is that political system functioning? If the government actually admits defeat in this election, it would represent a previously unimaginable peaceful close to the end of Mugabe’s reign. Given his willingness to wreck Zimbabwe before, I just don’t see this happening, but news reports this AM seem to indicate it as a real possibility. Here’s hoping.