"Die, Robert Mugabe, Die!"

Morgan Tsvangirai has argued that a run-off is unnecessary and that the government would rig the outcome.

Political opponents of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe denounced Friday's presidential election results as "illegal" and said they stand by their stance that their leader won the race and that no runoff is necessary.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said challenger Morgan Tsvangirai won 47.9 percent of the vote, compared with 43.2 percent for Mugabe.

"The announcement of the results today was illegal. The MDC stands by its previous stance that the vote was stolen from the opposition by a regime that is clinging to power," said Tendai Biti, secretary-general of Tsvangirai's political party, Movement for Democratic Change.

Under Zimbabwe law, because neither candidate got 50 percent plus one vote, a runoff is needed.

But Biti said the law states that the candidate who has the most votes should be president. The MDC also contends that Tsvangirai got 50.3 percent of the vote and is the official winner.

The MDC has also maintained that it will not participate in a runoff. If it holds to that, Mugabe would retain the presidency, said the chief of the electoral commission, George Chiweshe.

Reports of violence against opposition supporters have emerged from Zimbabwe amid heightened tensions since the presidential election.

Zimbabwe's religious leaders called for international help.

"People are being abducted, tortured, humiliated by being asked to repeat slogans of the political party they are alleged not to support," according to a statement from a coalition of Christian churches in Zimbabwe released two weeks ago. "In some cases, people are murdered."

Government spokespeople have denied those reports or said they were exaggerated.

Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe

The current rule under Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Thousands of Zimbabweans die and suffer everyday -yet Mr. Robert Mugabe won't admit it!

    Democracy is more than having elections. If there is no opposition to the ruling party or President or if the elections are rigged, that government is only ostensibly democratic. Such as been the case for the nation of Zimbabwe under President Robert Mugabe for twenty eight years.

Mugabe, 84, is the only ruler Zimbabwe has had since British rule of the former Rhodesia came to end in 1980, and he was a hero of the civil war against the white government.

He has been re-elected several times, often either running unopposed or in elections that prompted charges of fraud and state-sponsored terrorism against opponents, and has consolidated his rule over all aspects of Zimbabwean life.

Two weeks before the last presidential election in 2002, which the MDC alleges was stolen, the government charged Tsvangirai with treason. He was acquitted. The MDC accused Mugabe of trying to eliminate him as a challenger.

Zimbabwe faced international sanctions after the 2002 election, including travel restrictions on Zimbabwean officials.

It was once known as the breadbasket of southern Africa, but it is now difficult to get basic food supplies in Zimbabwe. Inflation has skyrocketed to more than 100,000 percent, and food production and agricultural exports have dropped drastically.

Once revered for providing some of the best education and health care in Africa, it now has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe  KCB

Mugabe at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Jan. 31, 2008

Robert Mugabe, KCB (born on February 21, 1924) is the President of Zimbabwe. He has served as the head of government in Zimbabwe since 1980, as Prime Minister from 1980 to 1987 and as the first executive President since 1987. He rose to prominence in the 1960s as a Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) in guerilla warfare against white-minority rule in Rhodesia in the Bush War (1964–1979).

Emerging from the war, he was hailed by Africans as a hero. After a costly intervention in the Second Congo War and mass expropriation of white-owned farmland, Western opinion turned sharply against Mugabe, and various forms of economic sanctions and reductions in aid were imposed. Zimbabwe's economy spiraled downward, leading to food and oil shortages, hyperinflation, and massive emigration. During this recent period his policies have been denounced in the West and at home as racist against Zimbabwe's white minority. Mugabe has described his critics as "born again colonialists," and both he and his supporters claim that Zimbabwe's problems are the legacy of imperialism, aggravated by Western economic meddling. On 3 April 2008, it was announced in the world press that the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change was claiming to have won control of the parliament. This was confirmed when the results were released, but is currently being disputed

      Robert Mugabe did his country a great service in the struggle for independence from colonialism but true to an historical pattern I have observed, the tendency of revolutionary leaders to become authoritarian rulers ( Mao Tse-Tung, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for example) is certainly manifested in the political career of Robert Mugabe. Only intense international scrutiny from the media and pressure from other democratic countries will force Mugabe to peaceably step down from his despotic and ruinous rule over Zimbabwe. If Mugabe refuses to do so civil war is inevitable in suffering Zimbabwe. It is way past time for Robert Mugabe to die from natural causes but as the old saying goes, "only the good die young". May the wretched rule of Robert Mugabe die soon.

tags: zimbabwe  robert mugabe  power  president  africa  

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