THE long-awaited results of the March 29 presidential poll have been announced the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and have put the Movement for Democratic Change party's candidate Morgan Tsvangirai ahead with 47.9% of the vote while President Robert Mugabe got 43.2%.
As none of the candidates polled the required 50 plus one per cent of the poll, a runoff election is now definite.
A vote of over 50 per cent is required under Zimbabwean electoral law to win the presidential election outright and avoid a run-off vote.
The MDC-T has called the election result "scandalous daylight robbery".
Earlier this week Tsvangirai insisted he had won an outright victory in the poll and said he will not contest a runoff election, unless international observers were allowed to monitor the runoff election.
This claim of an outright victory was rejected by the Zanu PF party Wednesday, who said that Tsvangirai had beaten president Mugabe, but had not won enough of the vote to avoid a second round.
Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said earlier this week: "As far as I'm concerned, there is going to be a run-off. We have got our own results."
The result was announced after a verification process by the candidates to check the result.
The official figures matched those leaked earlier in the week by alleged government officials—a deliberate move viewed by many as preparing the ground for a run-off.
By law, a second round should be held within 21 days of a result being announced.
Gordon Brown slumps to worst electoral defeat
Meanwhile British Prime Minister, who was very vocal on the situation in Zimbabwe, will be the last person to comment on these election results after seeing Labour slump to its worst electoral defeat in decades in local council elections.
Brown said it had been a "bad" and "disappointing" night for the party in the local elections, as David Cameron racked up huge gains in councils across England and Wales.
Brown is facing pressure from Labour MPs for a change in direction.
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READER OPINIONS
n/a • n/a Subject: This paper is anti-mdc Sat, 03 May 2008 06:15:15 • You paper is anti-MDC. I have posted two comments and you thanking me that they will be published. So it takes twenty four hours to publish comments. But a comment portraying MDC a laughing stock is welcome. God is for us all!
Omugabe • dziva@sanandresano.com Subject: Africa for Africans -- LOOK INWARD & 'LOOK EAST' ZIM PATRIOTS Fri, 02 May 2008 22:46:29 • This time around, the Mentally Deluded by Colonialists (MDC) will not allowed to use their racist western monies to buy out voters.
Australian racist and perverted politicians are always interfering in Zimbabwe's internal affairs.
Meet the Australian political sniffer of female chairs. lol
Phillan Zamchiya • pres1zamchiya@yahoo.com Subject: MDC: The second round will be sweeter!!! Fri, 02 May 2008 20:00:02 • MDC: The second round will be sweeter!!!
The state of affairs in Zimbabwe is that the 29th of March 2008 Presidential election has failed to produce a clear winner therefore a run-off is imminent. Morgan Tsvangirayi is clearly leading with 47.9% of the vote and Mugabe trailing for the first time since independence with 43.2 %. Never mind the glaringly clear rigging by ZANU PF, the current reality as things stand, is back to the ballot.
Given this scenario, some shaky corridors of power, long subjugated to the victim mode by ZANU PF, are developing cold feet over the impending second round. In my view, the first round in various circles of human existence, serves the purpose of softly-softly knocking each other down in- order to settle. It’s from the second –round that we usually start knocking each other out, be it him or her. In this short article, I briefly outline why Zimbabweans should not be scared of the second round but rather endeavour to ice the cake for sweeter victory.
Firstly let me salute the MDC, civil society and the generality of Zimbabweans for knocking down the dictator in the very first round. Now the people should be on guard against falling into victim mode for the greatest weapon of the tyranny is the mind of the oppressed. Let us remove the fear, the dogma of Bob infallibility is no more, the dictator has been defeated and everybody can see that he is fallible. Never mind his dream to be life President of Zimbabwe signaled when he signed a secret agreement to create a secret army in October 1981 with Kim Sung 11 of North Korea.
Now it is almost impossible for Bob to recover from the floor given his age. My friend who is studying biology told me that scientifically it is more realistic for a 56 year old to recover for a second round bout than an 84 year old. It’s almost impossible to carry the endurance of the second round at that age, ask Grace Mugabe?
As if it’s not enough, Mugabe has no panacea to the comatose economy between now and the next round. The economy continues to bleed with inflation officially put at 165 000% and more chaos in the foreign exchange market fuelled by Gono’s ill-advised monetary prize (policy). In as much as Mugabe is able to arrest the MDC family members there are no ways he can been able to send his dreaded securocrats to arrest the economy. So in the latter he remains with a lethal opposition he can not deal with.
On top of that, MDC has made a commonsensical step by re-uniting towards the second round. This means that the split vote between Mutambara and Morgan is going to be consolidated toward the latter. Consequentially Morgan is most likely to double his vote in Bulawayo Province and triple his vote in parts of Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South. Further from that, the ten constituencies that ZANU PF won by default because of the then MDC split will be rightfully re-claimed by Morgan Tsvangirai. This means Mugabe would be left to battle from less than 87 constituencies’ visa –a Vis Morgan’s 123 constituencies.
Now, what’s the fear? Violence at its maxim failed to yield ballot victory for Bob in 2000 and 2002. From the verification process held at the behest of the High court following the 2002 disputed presidential election it was clear that Morgan won the election by 70 000 votes. Ask David Coltart who participated in that re-count. Even though, if voter turn out had been 66% in all constituencies, given the same voting trend for both MDC and ZANU PF the former could have won out rightly.
The cake has been baked and all that is needed for Zimbabweans is to believe and adjust to what Zimunya calls the cultural shock. The icing of the cake would include a more unified working approach with the robust civil society and bonus points from the likes of Ibbo Mandaza and Tekere. The battle is now for every vote. The gospel now should be “Come now let us reason together” Isaiah 1 vs. 18.
By Phillan Zamchiya
Can be contacted at pres1zamchiya@yahoo.com
Former ZINASU President
Cape Town
South Africa
0219593938
n/a • n/a Subject: n/a Fri, 02 May 2008 17:42:11 • This was just a way of testing the mood on the ground.It is back to the drawing body and Zanu must flex their muscles.They are a tried and tested party.They can laugh last and laugh longest after the rumblings by the toad Biti.
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