There isn’t much to say about the horrors taking place in Zimbabwe right now. But while we cannot do anything, really, to prevent the disaster that is being visited on the people of Zimbabwe (although I must say I love the idea of demanding that the 2010 World Cup be withdrawn from South Africa), we can at least recognize what is taking place right now.
Via Reuters:
The poll has been widely condemned and a security committee of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) called for the vote to be postponed, saying Mugabe’s re-election as the only candidate could lack legitimacy.
Zimbabweans had hoped the run-off would help end a severe economic crisis marked by acute shortages of foreign currency, food, an 80 percent unemployment rate and the world’s highest inflation rate, estimated to be two million percent.
A loaf of bread now costs 6 billion Zimbabwe dollars, or 150 times more than at the time of the first round of elections.
Mugabe, 84, planning to extend his 28-year-old uninterrupted rule, remained defiant and even ridiculed African leaders who said he should delay the election.
“Even today they are saying do away with the election, what stupidity is that,” Mugabe said at his last campaign rally on Thursday, where he urged people to vote in large numbers.
Mugabe has barred observers from Western countries critical of his government and all but refused entry to hundreds of foreign journalists who were keen to cover the election.
A grouping of local observers has said its members were harassed and intimidated by government supporters and that they would not observe Friday’s vote.
Emphasis added. Let’s all at least bear witness.
