Mugabe mouthpiece: Poll results “dangerous”
posted at 7:52 am on April 9, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Robert Mugabe has a secret, and he wants to protect his nation by keeping it to himself and his closest henchmen friends. According to the attorney from Mugabe’s election commission, that secret could create dangerous “exigencies” that the government could not control. The secret, of course, isn’t hard to deduce:
A lawyer for Zimbabwe’s electoral commission said on Wednesday it would be “dangerous” for the High Court to order the release of presidential election results, as demanded by the opposition MDC.
The Movement for Democratic Change has gone to court to try to force out the result of the March 29 vote, saying its leader Morgan Tsvangirai has won and should be declared president, ending the 28-year rule of President Robert Mugabe. …
George Chikumbirike, a lawyer for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, told judge Tendai Uchena: “It would be dangerous in my view to give an order because it might not be complied with … because of outside exigencies which the party (ZEC) will be unable to control.”
The big secret? Mugabe lost, and lost by a large enough margin to make a runoff unnecessary. The only reason Mugabe would want to keep the results quiet is if he didn’t qualify for the second round, and if he couldn’t cook the results enough to moderate the loss. In this, the MDC wisely took photographic evidence of the vote tallies at each polling station, which got publicly displayed at the end of the election process. That has checkmated Mugabe’s efforts to generate numbers out of whole cloth.
No other explanation makes sense. Why have a national election, and then claim that the results are confidential? An election is the least confidential action government can take — at least in a free nation where the election isn’t just a circus act by a desperate dictator. Even his allies in South Africa have started questioning what Mugabe is trying to do.
The danger is all for Mugabe. If he releases the actual results, he’ll have to find the next flight out of Zimbabwe. If he gives out bogus results, the MDC will publish its documentary evidence and start a putsch that will likely end with Mugabe at the end of a rope. It’s a matter of whether Mugabe will accept his removal from power or if he wants to take a lot of people with him on the way out.
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It’s the latter, Ed. Too bad for Zim. Mugabe will never relinquish power voluntarily as he and his cronies have way to much at stake.
The really sad part is for all the talk about civil war, it’ll never happen. As long as Bob controls the military the general population is defenseless to do anything. The “security” forces will kill some rabble rousers for good measure, the MDC will go into hiding, and all will be normal again in Bob’s world.
It’s a damn shame, and the west could care less.
BacaDog on April 9, 2008 at 8:07 AM
How is this an issue for the west. There are precisely zero strategic assets at stake in ZImbabwe for the west. And after all, the good people of Zimbabwe voted for this guy. The good people of Zimbabwe seemed to think ‘land redistribution’ was a grand idea until it all went south.
This is their mess and they need to fix it. If anyone should help out locally it is South Africa but given the bunch of jokers nominally running that car-crash of a country that is probably unlikely.
Ares on April 9, 2008 at 8:12 AM
Maybe Jimmy Carter should apply his diplomatic skills there instead.
jackmac on April 9, 2008 at 8:12 AM
he ‘diplomatic skills’ required there is for one of the upper military types to step up for his country and come down on the side of democracy. Not likely to happen, but if he did and he pulled it off, history would think very kindly of him.
michaelo on April 9, 2008 at 8:29 AM
It’s a good thing Zimbabwe citizens have the United Nations to back them up and to make things right.
/sarcasm off
Tom Blogical on April 9, 2008 at 8:42 AM
I’m looking so forward to the new 1 Billion-dollar Zimbabwe currency note; Mugabe must be also.
localmalcontent on April 9, 2008 at 8:44 AM
baldilocks made a good point on her blog in that almost all Africans of Mugabe’s generation embraced communism in their youth. It will be difficult to find a leader out of that generation mindset who would be willing to reverse Mugabe’s economic policy. That, plus the endemic government corruption/cronyism doesn’t lead me to think that anything short of civil war is coming. It would take at least a generation to get the ag sector back in a healthy state; without exports or the ability to produce food, and with the horrendous inflation rate, Zimbabwe will continue be an economic basket case for a long time. What a waste.
a capella on April 9, 2008 at 8:46 AM
Actually, he is probably thinking more of all those gold krugerrands he has stuffed in a Swiss bank vault…
rbb on April 9, 2008 at 8:49 AM
What’s that old Western movie line “Hangins too good fer im!“? Why not let the good people of Zimbabwe make that determination themselves?
SeniorD on April 9, 2008 at 9:03 AM
Now there’s a happy thought. No better place for this homicidal maniac who has destroyed a nation.
Pax americana on April 9, 2008 at 10:39 AM
Oongawa Boondoloh eeky eeky *click* *click*
SilverStar830 on April 9, 2008 at 10:45 AM
.
It is funny (and also sad) that their banknotes now have expiration dates on them, such that they can only be redeemed within a 90 day period.
Think_b4_speaking on April 9, 2008 at 10:49 AM
As I’ve said before, Mugabe is especially bad, but the story of Zimbabwe is more in line with the mainstream trajectory of African nations in the last 50 years than it is a special case. Africa is a mess because it is run by Africans. Getting rid of Mugabe for someone less crazy might lead to some small incremental improvements, but a lot of people seem to believe that if we get rid of him, Zimbabweans will somehow become competent and rational administrators and citizens, when nearly all past evidence is to the contrary.
Muswell Hillbilly on April 9, 2008 at 11:29 AM
The Times of London [online] has a story about Mugabe’s thugs forcing the few remaining white farmers to destroy what little food they produce, and preventing them from planting crops.
Apocalypse to follow; film at eleven.
rockhauler on April 9, 2008 at 11:36 AM
Thus we see another tyrant commit suicide and take his country with him. We’ve seen this so many times before, and this was predictable right from the start of Mugabe’s reign. We probably stopped it in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the world will probably never forgive us for it. Small wonder the international community will do nothing except wring its hands until the bodies stop twitching and then cry piously “Never again!” I think diplomacy has just about outlived its usefulness.
Socratease on April 9, 2008 at 11:44 AM
This is all the fault of the European Imperialists.
TooTall on April 9, 2008 at 11:55 AM
The problem is not that Africa is run by Africans. It is that it is run by kleptocrats and incompetents who pander to and spread ideology instead of sound economics.
It took thousands of years for civilization to need and produce an Adam Smith. Africa might be only a few hundred years behind, but that makes all the difference.
njcommuter on April 9, 2008 at 1:15 PM
If Africa is the point of origin of the evolution of modern man, as most scientists postulate, then why are they still so friggin’ uncivilized? It’s more like they are deeply evolutionarily challenged and at or near the bottom rung of the evolutionary ladder. No matter how much colonialism, how much financial help, how many missionarys, how many schools are built, how many massive food and supply airlifts, or how much assistance of any kind is given to them on a silver platter in an effort to teach them to take care of and feed themselves, they’re still just a continent of gun toting savages… in every single country.
After millions of years of evolution of man starting at the alleged origin in Africa, shouldn’t they be way beyond where they are?
Personally, my heart feels a great deal of sympathy for those in Africa who simply wish to live their lives as good and decent people, but my brain can barely give a rat’s backside about what they do to eachother anymore.
SilverStar830 on April 9, 2008 at 2:48 PM
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