Related: Zimbabwe's Vote
"Mugabe’s party appears headed for win in Zimbabwe" by Lydia Polgreen | New York Times, August 03, 2013
HARARE, Zimbabwe — The party of Robert G. Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s long-ruling president, appeared to be on track to win a huge majority in Parliament after Wednesday’s elections, the Zimbabwe Election Commission announced Friday, allowing it to recapture parliamentary control from its main challenger, the Movement for Democratic Change.
The partial results were announced as African election observers on Friday presented a mixed report on the voting, saying that while it had been peaceful and orderly, serious problems were detected, including voters’ being turned away, too many ballots being printed, and bias in the news media.
That is so odd and strange because the link I led this post with told us "voting had gone well."
What we are looking at here is the "wrong guy" won because the rig didn't work, so now the charges of unclean and unfair elections is razed.
As for bias in the media, none one receives that more than Americans.
But monitors from the African Union and the Southern African Development Community, a regional trade bloc, concluded that the problems were not serious enough to invalidate the election.
“I have never seen an election that is perfect,” said Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria who led the African Union delegation, after cataloging the problems that plagued the vote. “We do not believe these instances will add up to the result not reflecting the will of the people.”
The regional trade bloc echoed this conclusion, calling the election “free and peaceful,” but officials stopped short of calling it fair, saying further investigation into the process was needed....
Patrick Chinamasa, a senior official of Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF, and the minister of justice, castigated Morgan Tsvangirai, the main presidential challenger, in a news conference, who on Thursday called the election a “farce” and demanded an investigation by the African Union and the regional trade bloc.
“He makes the point the election was a farce, a sham election,” Chinamasa said. “Really? When 3.95 million people go to vote in cold weather, you call it a sham and a farce?”
The sham is not Mugabe, it's the fart-misters!
On Thursday a coalition of local charities that had sent 7,000 observers to the polls said that as many as 1 million voters were either missing from the registration roll or were turned away from polling stations, casting doubt on the validity of the election. Chinamasa scoffed at the assertion that that many people had been disenfranchised....
Tsvangirai and other leaders of the Movement for Democratic Change were in emergency meetings Friday, trying to decide what to do next, party officials said.
“The MDC totally rejects the electoral process and the outcome as announced so far, as both were not free and fair,” the party said in a statement. “The Zimbabwean election was a monumental fraud by the state security agents and ZANU-PF.”
Translation: Tsvangirai is the West's man!
Under the constitution, the challengers can go to the Constitutional Court within seven days of the announcement of the final result, but the top court is packed with ZANU-PF loyalists, analysts say, making it unlikely that an appeal would succeed.
Al Gore tried it anyway, but....
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"Mugabe wins again in Zimbabwe, leaving rival greatly weakened
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Robert Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since it threw off white rule in 1980, won another term as president after a disputed election held Wednesday, defeating his main challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai, with 61 percent of the vote, the Zimbabwe Election Commission said Saturday. Mugabe’s party also won more than two-thirds of the seats in Parliament, giving it a supermajority to make changes to the constitution (New York Times)."
Now that is a mandate!
"Botswana criticizes Zimbabwe vote" by Angus Shaw | Associated Press, August 07, 2013
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Botswana emerged Tuesday as a rare African voice of criticism of Zimbabwe’s disputed election, saying it was unfair and warning the region not to flout its own guidelines by accepting the result.
Botswana must be a client state.
In breaking ranks with other African observers, Botswana said the region ‘‘should not create the undesirable precedent of permitting exceptions to its own rules’’ on the conduct of Zimbabwe’s voting. In a statement in Harare, Botswana said its 80 observers concluded that conditions for free and fair elections were not met because of widespread irregularities.
The opposition and nongovernmental groups have alleged that massive vote-rigging enabled President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party to win a landslide over its challenger, the Movement for Democratic Change party. Mugabe’s supporters counter that such allegations are part of a smear campaign.
The announcement by sparsely populated Botswana, which shares a border with Zimbabwe, contrasted with cautious support for last week’s vote from the African Union and the Southern African Development Community.
But it gave a hint of the unease over the vote in Zimbabwe among neighbors that have issued calls for reform and reconciliation there.
If any foreigner suggests that about AmeriKa's rig jobs they are blasted.
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"Mugabe takes oath in Zimbabwe" by Lydia Polgreen | New York Times, August 23, 2013
JOHANNESBURG — Robert G. Mugabe was sworn in as president of Zimbabwe on Thursday in a pomp-filled ceremony in the capital, Harare, that extends by five years his 33-year rule.
Mugabe won a broad but disputed victory in Zimbabwe’s national election July 31, defeating his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, by nearly 30 percentage points. It was a surprising turnabout for Mugabe, 89, who won fewer votes than Tsvangirai did in the previous presidential election, in 2008, and was forced into forming a unity government.
Oh, the West just thought they would breeze through this regime change.
Mugabe struck a conciliatory note in his inaugural speech, given in a stadium filled with thousands of cheering supporters. He praised Tsvangirai and other opposition leaders, and called for unity.
“We will have competition and winners and losers,” Mugabe said. “We shall never be competing to be Zimbabweans.”
Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change, called the election a farce and rejected the result as illegitimate, a view shared by many local observers and the United States, which said the vote did not represent the will of the Zimbabwean people.
But not most of Africa or the observers.
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And what did NOT make my printed paper:
"Zimbabwe's Mugabe threatens foreign-owned firms" by GILLIAN GOTORA / Associated Press / August 25, 2013
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s long-serving president on Sunday threatened to expel foreign-owned companies over what he said was the West’s interference in the politics of the country he has led since 1980.
President Robert Mugabe said he wanted no ‘‘ideas from London or Washington,’’ speaking before supporters at the funeral of a top military chief in Harare. He warned the Western powers that although his government hasn’t ‘‘done anything to your companies, time will come when we will say tit for tat.’’
He's taking on some pretty big beef, although someone might have his back.
He said: ‘‘You hit me, I hit you. We have a country to run and we must be left free to run it.’’
Britain, the former colonial power, the European Union and the United States have refused to endorse Mugabe’s landslide victory in the July 31 elections, citing evidence of vote rigging.
Gee, who would help him do that?
The Western countries maintain economic restrictions on Mugabe and leaders of his ruling party.
Mugabe insists his party won ‘‘a resounding mandate’’ in the last election and denies allegations of voting fraud. Zimbabwe’s state election panel said Mugabe won the July 31 elections with 61 percent of the presidential vote.
Mugabe, who was sworn in Thursday for another five-year term at the age of 89, said that ‘‘there will come a time when we lose our patience’’ with the West’s pressure for democratic reforms.
‘‘I want to assure you our attitude will not continue to be passive,’’ Mugabe said Sunday. ‘‘We have had enough and enough is enough.’’
Since winning another term Mugabe has vowed to push ahead with a black empowerment program to force foreign and white-owned businesses to cede 51 percent ownership to black Zimbabweans. Some economists warn that the program will trigger another economic downturn, like that Zimbabwe suffered after Mugabe’s government seized white-owned farms in 2000.
Mugabe, on the other hand, says the new economic plan to force black control of companies will create jobs and economic growth that had been hindered by what he called ‘‘a tenuous and fraught coalition with uneasy partners’’ in the opposition led by former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai had favored attracting Western investment during the five-year coalition forged by regional leaders after the last disputed elections in 2008.
Mugabe says Britain has opposed black empowerment since he forced thousands of white farmers to surrender their land. Critics of the program say it disrupted Zimbabwe’s agriculture-based economy, shut down industries and scared away foreign investment in mining and other businesses.
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Also related:
"Foreign players in the Zimbabwe platinum, diamond and aluminum business face forfeiture of their mining facilities as part of a government program aimed at nationalizing industries, according to Indiginization Minister Saviour Kasukuwere. While banks will be compensated for their losses and other industries, such as telecommunications, will be allowed to cede smaller stakes, it appears the mining sector will be asked to surrender control gratis. Companies affected by the plan may include Anglo American Platinum Ltd, Standard Chartered Plc, Aquarius Platinum Ltd, Impala Platinum, and Barclays. Robert Mugabe won the recent Presidential election in a landslide which was verified by African Union observers as "free and credible."
That explains the charges of fraud and such, doesn't it, although it must be the reason the West is not making too much of a stink (that and the connections to you-know-who).
Also see: Zimbabwe opposition glum, resigned to more Mugabe
It really is never-ending agenda-pu$hing in my corporate pre$$.
