Mugabe party demands poll recount
Mugabe is demanding that the votes be recounted in the Zimbabwean election for president before they have even been released.
The state-run Sunday Mail newspaper said the governing Zanu-PF party requested a recount because there had been "errors and miscalculations". "Consequent to the anomalies, the party has also requested that the commission defer the announcement of the presidential election result," it added.I suppose this crap was to be totally expected as the old tyrant seeks to cling to power.
According to papers submitted to the ZEC by Zanu-PF, the number of votes for Mr Mugabe recorded at a number of polling stations were reduced before being sent on to electoral officials.
Some ZEC officials working in the Midlands constituencies of Mberengwa East, West, North and South had since been arrested, the Sunday Mail said.
"As will soon become apparent, the constituency elections officer and his team committed errors of miscounting that are so glaring as to prejudice not just our clients' candidate but also his co-contestants," Zanu-PF's letter said, according to the Sunday Mail.
"There can be no doubt that the entire results of the presidential election in Mberengwa's four constituencies are grossly irregular and cannot stand up to scrutiny," it added.
Okay, so we have the first admission that Mugabe actually lost the election, as Zanu-PF are now claiming that an election which was run while they were in charge of the government was rigged against them.
The results have yet to be released but they are obviously not good for Mugabe, which is why his thugs have been sent on to Zimbabwe's streets.
Meanwhile South Africa's president Mbeki has arrived in London. It is hard to overstate just how ineffective and useless Mbeki has been over the past few years, persistently refusing to issue any criticism of Mugabe's regime and refusing to partake in any kind of intervention.
And from what he's been saying since he got here we can expect more of the same from Mbeki.
Mr Mbeki came to Britain for the Progressive Governance summit of centre left leaders which ended on Saturday.
Speaking about Zimbabwe at the close of the conference in Watford, he said: "The situation for now is manageable.
"It is time to wait. Let's see the outcome of the election results. If there is a re-run of the presidential election let us see what comes out of that."
He defended how the disputed elections have been conducted so far and said the delay in announcing the result of the presidential ballot was due to the lengthy verification process put in place by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
It's always time to wait with Mbeki, and the fact that he is defending the length of time it has taken to even release the results of the election, tells you all that you need to know about this ineffectual little man.
Part of the reason that Mugabe has managed to survive so long is because his neighbours play along, terrified of being seen as puppets of the UK, which is one of Mugabe's most constant charges.
The PM [Gordon Brown] said if there was a run-off between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai, international observers should be in place to ensure it was fair.
"We are monitoring the situation closely. I think the important thing is that the results have got to be published. They cannot be any longer delayed. They have got to be seen to fair," he said.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the UN Security Council was united in wanting the results announced.
It's appalling that Mugabe can get away with shit like this, but when his neighbours turn a blind eye and refuse to condemn him he is able to claim that the evil Brits are trying to destabilise his country.
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