Elections in Zimbabwe

[nametaken]

I wonder who will win the Elections in Zimbabwe.

Do you think it could be Robert Mugabe by any chance.

Ha - yes! Without a doubt! He wouldn't have it any other way hey!

mdc claiming initial win this morning
ohplease pleas let there be change. Mugabe will seek exile in SA where he is oft regArded as a hero

Please please please let it not be Mugabe and please let the transition be peaceful. I suspect it won't be though. I can't see him giving in without a fight.

Not looking too positive, pictures on our news of police 'guiding' people into the voting booths - I suspect it may get nasty.

it's all a fix.

Sorry to be inflammatory but - How difficult is it to put a bullet in that man?

Thabo Mbeki's brother was on World at One talking about this and he said - amongst other things - that the other African states would rather have Mugabe than Morgan Tsvangirai.

(I was only half-listening though, so I couldn't tell you why, but it does suggest that they won't be encouraging Mugabe to go quietly )

Madcol - very hard apparently! 28 years later he is still here... Mind you he is very heavily guarded - his home in Harare is like Fort Knox and no-one can drive past it between the hours of 18:00pm - 06:00am and if they do it is a case of shoot first, question later (no jokes).

Madcol I had the same thoughts but as others have pointed out there just isn't any getting near him.

Remember the incident a few years back when the gay rights activist, Peter Tatchell, tried to confront him? Mugabe's bodyguards beat him up - in front of a national press crew.

It is absurdly intriguing that every generation throws up a Hitler/Idi Amin/Mussolini/Mugabe, and that the rest of the world seems completely powerless to prevent them.

Indeed, how difficult would it be to put a bullet in the git?

Africa as a continent has vast potential. When, oh when, will they get the leaders they deserve?

We have just been phoned to say that Mugabe has won. AP (not from a rich family, btw) dancing around shouting "Yes! Yes! the land is still ours!"

I reckon that's what the result will be. They will make it look close to try and appease voters and the world watchers.
A few heads will roll as a pithy gesture.

So what will the world do if anything?
What will the Zimbabweans do...
Mugabe must be hanging by a thread, his loyalists must be under so much pressure
On ch4 news last night they were quizzing MDC rep in the UK about Joyce Mujuru holding her seat and her husband a retired army commander having sympathetic links to MDC.
So it all points towards a sea change, but when.
Surely the people will not accept this and other countries must see that and support them.
Are there any African nations sympathetic to a change of rule there?

They had a cartoon in The Times the other day of a voting card, it said:

Mr Mugabe
Robert Mugabe
R Mugabe

says it all really

dh has lots of customers from there and the horror stories they tell

world leaders are putting pressure on the South African president (?? name atm) because if Mugabe stays they are looking at 100,000+ more refugees

From the Guardian:

If they do try to fudge it it's going to be so blatant that other African states will find it much harder to support him.

Thabo Mbeki, oo

(though not for much longer?)

The time it is taking for the results to come out is very suspicious. Suspect MDC has won and vote is being rigged to prevent this. Zanu PF has lost some key seats in previously strongly held constituencies. I am so worried about dd3s godmother and her family in Bulawayo . Matabeleland is very pro-MDC and if there's going to be trouble it will be there.

I expect everyone in the country is sick with nerves.
My sister visited Zimbabwe two years ago, and fell in love with the country.
But some of the sights she saw there were harrowing.

I havn't been for 10 years but worked at a hospital in Bulawayo before that and was about to emigrate when i met dh and fell pregnant with dd1. It's a beautiful country with wonderful people and it breaks my heart to see it in such a state.

but the African nations will never learn. There's a lot of talk that South Africa will go the same way .

when I lived in south africa I saw an advert once about the zimbabwe elections. it showed a horrific car accident, and the dead bodies being pulled out of the wreckage. and the caption underneath read "this is one way to die. Another way is to vote for , so vote for Robert Mugabi, and live.". And that was about 16 years ago. Nothing changes.

It's still too close to call yet according to the beeb. Obviously Mugabe is no longer the rational man he used to be, however there is no guarantee that the opposition can return the country to its former glory. After all, when we had the change of government after Moi (who did actually step down in defeat) here in Kenya everyone expected the best, sadly the regime has tarnished expectations in the last elections which were blatantly rigged.

It is difficult for other African leaders to become 'involved' in the politics of a fellow nation for fear of being accused of being in bed with America or the UK. In theory this is the role the African Union should play. As the Kenyans pointed out during the crisis here, it is our crisis and we must deal with it our own way. Needless to say it took some time and the impressive charms of Kofi Annan to reach a solution

Hopefully Zimbabweans will also deal with their own crisis themselves and it will see a new dawn for Zim.

the BBC website is just now reporting that some sort of deal between Zanu PF and the MDC has been struck whereby Mugabe will step down after the results have been announced - but I'll believe it only when I see it.

yes they said that on the TV too, Donnie then their reporter from SA said that Mbeki's office report that as being untrue and that apparently is a rumour being sent round by the MDC to put pressure on Mugabe...