02 April 2008 - Viva! Democracy returns to Zimbabwe!
The Movement for Democratic Change has now officially won the Zimbabwean parliamentary elections.
God only knows how.
But here are some theories:
1. Internal dissent within the ruling Zanu-PF complicated attempts to rig the vote.
2. South Africa was able to impose some modicum of good behavior on the Zanu-PF.
3. The MDC was emboldened by Jacob Zuma's victory at the ANC conference in South Africa in December.
4. Thabo Mbeki, ousted from the party leadership, had a freer hand to act in restraining Mugabe (or perhaps finally faced pressure from his party on the issue).
I think reason #3 is the strongest explanation.
Anyway--time to celebrate!
posted by Joel @ 12:19 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
unfortunately this does not mean much - for one mugabe rigged the results to get far more than his share of parliamentary seats - and due to mugabe's rewriting of the constitution and self-created "executive presidency", a two-thirds majority is required on on any issue to make a change. in any case, mugabe has the power to overrule a vote (in the very unlikely case that any zanu-pf parliamentarians would vote with an mdc bloc.) it's a mess and a tragedy. mdc are remarkable for fighting so long and so strong in the face of murder, torture, imprisonment and intimidation. but we'll get the old bastard out soon enough!
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