Zimbabweans queue to vote in 'rigged' poll

What I want to know is why Mbeki, president of South Africa, calls this election ‘free and fair’ (in advance!!). He also called the violent 2002 presidential elections fair.
Maybe he’s afraid of a civil war at his doorstep. That could lead to an exodus of refugees in the direction of neighbouring SA.
Or maybe he’s just scared to be called ‘a lapdog’ of the West, one of Mugabe’s favorite insults towards his opponents.
In any case, SA’s role in this whole story reeks of selfpreservation.

01 April 2005

Zimbabweans queued for hours at polling stations around the country yesterday, in elections proclaimed by President Robert Mugabe to be free and fair but dismissed by critics as another rigged result.

Mr Mugabe was bullish as he cast his vote in the capital, Harare, saying he was: “Entirely, completely, totally optimistic of victory.”

The opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, by contrast, appeared resigned to defeat. “We are not happy with the way the electoral playing field has been organised, and I think we all agree on all benchmarks this is not going to be a free and fair election,” he said.

The European Union has already dismissed the election as fraudulent, but Mr Mugabe has the support of South African election observers, who are expected to rule that the vote is free and fair.

The embattled President has sought to evoke the anti-imperialist mood of the independence struggle, with regular attacks on the British Prime Minister, using the slogan: “Bury [Tony] Blair.

He has accused Mr Blair of backing the oppostion Movement for Democratic Change to undermine Zimbabwe’s sov-ereignty and give land back to white farmers. The MDC in its turn has tried to focus on Zimbabwe’s catastrophic economic decline and fast-vanishing democracy.

The atmosphere…

Posted by BurningMonk

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