HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe's party seized the two-thirds parliamentary majority it needs to change Zimbabwe's constitution Saturday, clinching an election which both the opposition and western powers said was rigged.With a two-thirds majority Mugabe will be able to amend the constitution as he likes.
Official results announced Saturday showed Mugabe's ZANU-PF party winning 71 of the 120 contested seats against 39 for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
With the president appointing 30 additional members of the 150-seat parliament, ZANU-PF now has the two-thirds majority that Mugabe had set as a major election goal.
Analysts say [ZANU-PF] could use its majority to push throughRead the whole thing here.
constitutional changes to protect Mugabe from the kind of prosecutions that have
plagued some other African leaders when they stepped down. Mugabe is due to
retire in 2008.
So far the opposition's response has been pathetic.
The outspoken Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, said some Zimbabweans were praying for Mugabe to die. “Since the man (Mugabe) will not go on his own, some people are praying that God will take him. Mugabe has shown himself to be heartless and has left people with no option. There is nothing wrong with that. Of course it is up to God,” the Archbishop told SW Radio Africa.
He said it was not something he did regularly, but he had at some time in the past also prayed for Mugabe’s death - when he looked at the suffering of the people.
This is the guy who was trying to organize a "people power" protest. If this is the kind of leadership the opposition is counting on they have no hope of either overthrowing Mugabe or enlisting serious international support.
Read it here.
The Globe and Mail reports that the opposition is undecided as to its response.
Harare — Zimbabwe's opposition has categorically rejected election results that gave the ruling ZANU-PF another majority in parliament, but hesitated yesterday to say what it plans to do about it, leaving many supporters frustrated....Indecision, frustration, wishing their opponents would just die..., this does not sound promising. In the absence of a clear agenda, strong leadership, and effective organization, and faced by a ruler determined to keep his position, the democratic reform imperative grinds to a halt.
"We're waiting for word from Tsvangirai. If he gives the word, we will go to the streets," [one man] said in the early evening. "But up to now he hasn't said anything. If he calls us, we will go — although there is some risk [to] life. But he hasn't called."
The inaction was particularly frustrating for a group of 257 women, many of them elderly, others with young babies on their backs, who were arrested Thursday night at a prayer vigil for change in central Harare.
Many, who belong to Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA, which means "come forward" in Shona), were badly beaten by police before being hauled off to jail. [These are the women pictured below.]
....
Mr. Tsvangirai said the opposition had a plan, although he refused to say what it was.
....
[B]y fumbling through the day, MDC appeared to be squandering a prime moment to move, with a rare group of international observers and journalists ready to record their moves.
The MDC leader is in a difficult position. He has already once been charged with treason, and faced the death penalty had he been convicted; the government would be delighted with another such opportunity to try him, should he speak urgently of revolution.
It was clear yesterday that the MDC is still finding its feet as a national movement; it looked badly organized. And Mr. Tsvangirai has always committed himself to peaceful, democratic change, even as he draws a constituency of frustrated and angry young people.
Read about it here.
Publius pundit disagrees with my assessment. He thinks there is still plenty of time to launch a people power revolt. He writes:
Tsvangirai needs to make a decision, and he probably has until the end of the weekend to do it. The protest shouldn’t be called before the entire results are announced, and certainly not after all of the journalists leave. I have a feelings if the story of the year from Africa breaks, they won’t mind risking being expelled from the country. And even if they don’t, then we have great bloggers like Sokwanele,
who is putting out a report on the electoral fraud tomorrow.
Most importantly, however, the protests need to be called before these same able and willing people who want to do something about their grave situation give up hope. Mugabe’s coup over the constitution has to be stopped. Tsvangirai needs to realize that this is bigger than his own life, stand up, and say, “Enough!”
Read it here.
Sorry, I just don't have that much faith in the power of bloggerdom to stimulate political change. And, I don't feel that I have the right, sitting here in a comfortable living room overlooking the harbor, to demand that someone like Tsvangirai sacrifice his own life for abstract principles.
In the heady early days of the democratic revolution it might have seemed that all things would be possible, but I am too old and have seen too many failed "springs" to believe that. Eventually, the democratic movements would run up against determined resistance and the reform imperative would reach its limits. We are beginning to see those limits emerge now.
AND THEN THERE'S THIS!
2005-04-02) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condaleezza Rice today congratulated Robert Mugabe on winning this week's free and fair presidential elections to continue his 25-year rule of Zimbabwe.
"Under Mr. Mugabe's leadership," said Secretary Rice in a written statement, "Zimbabwe has become a recognized world leader in unemployment (70%), inflation(~620%) and HIV adult prevalence rate (33.7%). Thanks to this popular, legally-reelected, leader, the average lifespan of a Zimbabwean has gone from 61 years to 34 years in just the past 15 years, making his nation one of the most rapidly-youthful in the world."
Secretary Rice hailed Mr. Mugabe's leadership as "a textbook case which will be studied in universities around the world for years to come."
In addition to his legal reelection, the 81-year-old Mr. Mugabe's party this week legally won approximately 70 seats in the 150-seat legislature, and he legally will appoint an additional 30 legislators, giving him the two-thirds majority needed legally to re-write the constitution to allow him legally to hand-pick his successor.
As a reelection gift, U.S. Ambassador Joseph Sullivan presented Mr. Mugabe with a bound copy of President George Bush's second inaugural address with this excerpt engraved on the cover.
"All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not
ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your
liberty, we will stand with you."
RELAX! It's not real. It's just Scott Ott over at Scrappleface having some fun. Check out his blog here. Read it regularly -- I do.
Hmmm..., "rapidly youthful," gotta remember that one.
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