Zimbabwe opposition claims huge poll win

[tpsbmam]

Source: Guardian UK

Zimbabwe's opposition party claimed an overwhelming victory against President Robert Mugabe in yesterday's presidential election, saying that the flow of results showed its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, had 'massacred' the ruling Zanu-PF party.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) defied a government ban on pre-empting the official announcement of the election results and released the count from polling stations that showed Tsvangirai beating the man who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years, even in the president's home territory of Mashonaland.

'We've won this election,' said Tendai Biti, the MDC's secretary-general. 'The results coming in show that in our traditional strongholds we are massacring them. In Mugabe's traditional strongholds they are doing very badly. There is no way Mugabe can claim victory unless it is through fraud. He has lost this election.'

The government's electoral commission has yet to release the counts formally. But the MDC said that declarations posted at polling stations across Zimbabwe last night, and gathered from its agents observing the counts, showed Tsvangirai ahead of Mugabe in every province where results were available. The most dramatic gap was in Mashonaland West, where the MDC candidate had 88 per cent of the vote to the president's 12 per cent.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/30/zimbabwe1

[sharesunited]

1. The official count will tell quite a different story.

Maybe the Zimbabwean supreme court will be able to settle it.:silly:

[Zynx]

3. Mugabe won't budge. He's the foulest of dictators.

[ohio2007]

8. He had 9 million ballots printed up. The # of voters in that country --> 6 million

fix

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

11. As long as Mugabe's Rhodesian bag men keep the money comming

the senior levels of the military will remain loyal, Ironically the same Rhodesian families that were close to Ian Smith and kept the lights on in the dying days of Rhodesia joined up with Mugabe before the new flag was all the way up the pole.

want to take down Mugabe?

Freeze the international assets of the Davey and Bredenkamp families and his new British friend and international criminal Nicholas van Hoogstraten.

[Zynx]

2. With 100,000% inflation you would think so.

[robcon]

4. Mugabe's days may be numbered.

ON the other hand, he's hinted he "could not lose" so he may claim electoral victory or stage a coup.

The article's line: "The announcement paves the way for a period of high tension in Zimbabwe." may be an understatement.

[Ravachol]

5. If inflation works with votes...

Mugabe might be able to claim victory... with a 100,000 percent inflation ratio, that is. :D

[roamer65]

6. If Mugabe does not go, it will be civil war in Zimbabwe.

BBC has already reported tear gassing of MDC supporters celebrating their victory.

[ohio2007]

7. Dead voters arise ( hold the count please )

Mugabe seeks win at all costs
snip

Dead voters arise
The register is also said to bear names of dead voters. "Some of the names do not exist," Theresa Makone of the MDC told Al Jazeera.
"If the names existed, the people would be seen. Obviously they are fictitious. I wouldn't be surprised if all those names belong to dead people."

The opposition's other hurdle is that security organs seem to be all behind Mugabe, and are ready to do his bidding. Augustine Chihuri, Zimbabwe's police chief, warned recently that the police would not let opposition "puppets" take power, and that Mugabe's land redistribution policy would not be reversed.

The police have gained notoriety for cracking down on the opposition since the controversial land redistribution policy began in 2000.

Last year several leading opposition figures, including Tsvangirai and Nelson Chamisa, an MDC member of parliament, were badly beaten for holding rallies and ended up in hospital.
Mugabe was later to brag at a Zanu-PF rally:

"Of course he was bashed. He deserved it … I told the police to beat him a lot.
snip

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7E5ABC2D-1708-4D3B-B223-23649E230091.htm

Remember what Yogi said;
"It ain't over til the fat lady swings"

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

10. Dead Rhodesians have always been some of Mugabe's most loyal supporters

and then turn up on the voters lists in the strangest places,

[daleo]

9. Kerry won the exit polls in 2004

But Bush was the miraculous winner by morning. Gore won the 2000 election, but Bush had the Supreme Court.

Bush legitimized election cheating around the world.

[Nutmegger]

12. R&K

Thanks for posting.