Sunday, March 30, 2008



Zimbabwe elections

Zimbabweans went to the polls yesterday, in presidential elections widely expected to be rigged. Despite that, they voted anyway, with some queueing all night to exercise their right. The mood in the country seems to be for change - no-one can stomach Mugabe anymore - and this seems borne out by interim results (illegally) released by the Movement for Democratic Change, which show a clear win for the opposition. Of course, these are interim results from actual polling places, before they've been doctored by Mugabe's thugs, so the end results will probably look quite different.

The question then is what happens next. Mugabe has already said that he will use the army to crush any post-election protests, but people might be willing to run that risk anyway. The result will almost certainly be a bloodbath. Alternatively, Mugabe could meekly accept the people's will, and either bow out or accept a runoff election which, if it were free and fair, he will lose. But sadly, that's probably too much to hope for.