It can’t get any worse. Zimbabwe votes for second round Presidential run-off where 84-year old Robert Mugabe is the only candidate. Opposition MDC has totally withdrawn from the polls. Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC has issued a message to the voters- ‘Vote Mugabe to stay Alive’. And this is for their own safety.
Voters have no option either. They have seen worst face of terror ever since they voted for MDC in the first round of polls. Violence has left nearly more than 100 supporters dead and thousands more displaced, injured, abused and molested. Even if voters bravely enter the polling booth, it will be manned by Zanu PF and state militia, they’ll be black mailed at gun-point to vote for ZanuPF God Mugabe. If they don’t vote, the voting will be rigged. International monitoring bodies have been packed off too. Voters cannot abstain from voting either. Mugabe wants them to turn out in huge number and stage the best mockery of democratic process.
What is Robert Mugabe trying to prove by this futile exercise? He wants second term. He wants to eliminate opposition totally and retain power. After ruling a country for three decades and ruining its economy totally, after using militia and ZanuPF to kill his opposition supporters and his own people, Robert Mugabe has left no doubt about his power. He claims to be campaigning against West imperialism. But the way he is unleashing terror, he is essentially campaigning against himself. Internationally he is the face of the worst dictator in the present world. Yet nothing worked to bring him down. It is the saddest day in the history of Zimbabwe and African continent and probably the whole modern world.
Debate will continue to rage; who’ll stop this mad man? What South African Mbeki could do and didn’t do? What other countries can do? Will West intervene? When and how? There are many more questions seeking answers.
There is no doubt that Zimbabweans face a long dark tunnel of fear and suffering ahead. Even hope seems to be a dead bird now. Will it rise like Phoenix and bring a change?
Source: guardian
