Zimbabwe: Opposition Wins in a Landslide

[Robespierre's Jaw]

I really hope that the MDC wins this Election, they won't though sadly. Hard to believe that at one stage Zimbabwe was a prosperous nation and now look at them.

I thought that election monitors in Zimbabwe were going to delay the announcement of results until next week? Obviously not.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Saying Zimbabwe was once prosperous is like saying the threat of major international war was once less dangerous.

I should have added that it was seen as one of Africa's prosperous nations back in the early 1980's then of course it quickly collapsed.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Results are expected in an hour according to latest news:

Zimbabwe Election Deadline Approaches

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is set to chair a meeting of his party's politburo as the deadline approaches for the Electoral Commission to announce the official election results.

It appears there will be a second-round election between Mr Mugabe and his main challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change has already claimed the presidency, saying he has more than the required 50 per cent of the vote.

They have based this on results posted on the doors of individual polling stations.

The Electoral Commission, which has already ceded control of the Lower House of Parliament to the Opposition, has delayed announcing the official result of the presidential race until the end of today (local time), when it is constitutionally required to do so.

Spokesmen for President Mugabe say they believe the result is not clear and that the ZANU-PF's politburo is most likely to decide on a run-off election which could take up to three months to organise.

Robert Mugabe is clearly fighting for his political survival and there are concerns that if the presidential election goes to another round it could lead to the resurgence of the violence and intimidation that has been a characteristic of past elections in Zimbabwe.

In the last few hours, police in riot gear surrounded a hotel in Harare and arrested two foreign journalists for allegedly working illegally.

Earlier, police raided the Opposition's offices in the centre of the city, although party officials were not there at the time.