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Inauguration Sunday in Harare
The reason for the unseemly speed, which only underscored the farce of a one-man runoff, is pretty clear. Mugabe wants to attend the African Union summit tomorrow in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to establish his legitimacy in Africa's eyes; if the inauguration hadn't taken place, the AU could have plausibly said he couldn't attend since only heads of state were invited.
It's unclear at this point if the AU will even accept him now; their own election observers have not yet given their verdict on the run-off election, but it will be hard for them to describe it positively. But the Pan African Parliament, which also had an observer team here, at a press conference today at the Miekles Hotel in downtown Harare, issued a devastating verdict. "The mission concluded that the current atmosphere prevailing in the country did not give rise to the conduct of free, fair and credible elections," said the head of the observers' group, Marwick Khumalo. He said his observers saw an unusually high percentage of spoiled ballots -- many with "unpalatable messages" written on them -- and intimidating groups of young men at polling places instructing voters to write down the serial numbers on their ballots so they could check how they voted. And he noted that turnout was very low. And, of course, the leading vote getter in the first round, Tsvangirai, didn't even take part. For what it's worth, ZEC claimed that Mugabe beat Tsvangirai by 2 million to 200,000 nationwide, and even beat him in the opposition stronghold of Harare by two to one. Khumalo also had harsh words for how ZEC had responded to all the election irregularities. "Its deafening silence was alarming."
© 2008
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Member Comments
Posted By: Sultan Ahmed @ 07/12/2008 8:09:14 AM
Comment: History has chaned no its courde,
the world has also seen the dark days,
from detention to mudere,Zimbabe you would be remembered.
the way of voting was changed,
hurriedly polled all,
and receiving result,he took oath and become president,
for next term,
84 years old fogot God.
Impartial, tranparent ,independent,elcetions,
free fair and impatial voting,
as they said and publically promised,
but what happened,
what saw the sun of the day,
leaders of the day saw and felt all,
but who know many of them had hypocrisy
inside their heart.
Stage was sent,
brought the resolution.everyone hoped,
dictotor is to face his crimes,
and now coming to the ened fastly,
what happened their,
sanction could not be imposed,
vetoed,resolusion had been vetoted,
by the powers,who like tyranty,cruelty,un democratic system,powerless courts and judgement according to the wishes of the ruler,Mugabe.
Some side saying ,
the game is over,
but i am disagreee with them,
a new test has begun,
revolution require sacrifices,
and it is doubtless to say sacrifices would have to do,
to clean the way,
Zimbabwean streets smeared with blood of innocent people,
are screaming evolution,..............REVOLUTION>
Posted By: RiversideWarrior @ 06/30/2008 7:39:07 PM
Comment: It is time for the Zimbabwean people to begin their armed revolutionary struggle against the fascist Mugabe/ZANU-PF regime and their so-called "war veterans" and "Green Bomber" youth militia to give them a taste of what they richly deserve.
Posted By: Silentmajority @ 06/29/2008 10:16:52 PM
Comment: So your disinformation campaign came to nothing in the end, right? And Rod Nordland, it is high time you stopped pretendeing to be reporting from Zimbabwe. Eveveryone who is sane knows that you are in front of your Dell PC, in NEWSWEEK HQ.