The Situation in Zimbabwe #
Zimbabwe’s been under the thumb of Robert Mugabe for over two decades. The difficult-to-read election this coming weekend will determine if his time is up. I’ve been saving stuff on this topic for a week, looking to avoid flooding readers with it. Now here it.
From The Economist’s massive — and well done — article:
And yet, despite this stack of advantages, Mr Mugabe is plainly on the defensive. He must fear that Zimbabwe is in a state of such economic and political ruin that he needs more of a head-start than the 20% or so of votes provided by the standard forms of rigging. For Zimbabweans, however, there are two worries. One is that Mr Mugabe steals the election. The other is that he just fails to, especially if that means the president is forced into a run-off. In that case, he may resort to outright violence. “The violence has so far been contained, more or less,” says a former ZANU-PF minister who has joined Mr Makoni, “but if the election goes to two rounds it’ll go right up.”
Also:
- In a review, The Economist tackles the making of Mugabe
- The Financial Times says Mugabe’s denying his opponents food
- The Guardian says the opposition had to eat it’s campaign poster (via BB)
- The BBC reports that Mugabe won’t let the opposition MDC win during his lifetime
- Newsweek has a story about the country’s hyperinflation