Mugabe did what he had to do in order to ensure his 2/3 majority so he can change the constitution to gain complete control and pack the government with his cronies. He also dismisses any sort of fraud, and says it is nonsense. And even though 70 percent of the people in his country live in poverty, they expect us to believe they voted for his candidates. Sounds just like the events as played out in our last election...
People voting against their own best interests just because they feared gay marriage more than government lies and deception, unemployment, not having healthcare, losing our children in an illegal war, and living in a country that is really not much safer than it was the day before 9.11 happened. "Free and fair" obviously then has different meanings depending on whether you are a Fascist peddling fear to the masses, or a true believer in Democratic representation proclaiming truth.
Fear is the tool used by the Bush administration in the last campaign. They are no different than Robert Mugabe on that score, as they strut themselves around pretending to be for "Democracy" when all accounts of vote fraud in this country are summarilly dismissed by them without debate and are called nonsense by them. Was it not also Cheney who intimated that if people voted for Kerry we would be hit by terrorists?
Now they will even dare to say anything about this election? Sure, it was stolen. Mugabe is a tyrant... But they don't give a damn that he has used fear, intimidation, and starvation against this own people for decades. There is no talk of, "regime change" in Zimbabwe because of his treachery. There is no," axis of evil" label placed on Zimbabwe for the blatant attacks against dissent. However, Mugabe doesn't sit on a stash of the world's second largest oil reserves, so I suppose he's safe.
I submit to you then that Rice, Cheney, Bush, and the lot of them are Fascists themselves, and say what they say about other elections clearly based on the fact that to do anything else would expose them for what they really are. How utterly shameful to live in a country where our election process is really at this stage not much more reliable than a country run by a dictator. So, to Condosleeza Rice regarding her two faced remarks here, I also say, LOOK IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD.
Elections of fear are not free, so therefore, Bush is no more legititmate in my eyes than Mugabe or his Parliament.
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Opposition Rejects Zimbabwe Vote Results
1 hour, 35 minutes ago World - AP Africa
By NICOLE ITANO, Associated Press Writer
HARARE, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe's ruling party won a two-thirds majority in Zimbabwe's disputed parliamentary elections, according to interim results released Saturday, but the opposition refused to accept the results, saying the vote was flawed.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change did not say how it might contest the vote, but police set up checkpoints on the roads leading to Harare to contain any trouble.
"This is a moment of victory for my party and the victory of my party translates itself, naturally, into a victory for our country," a jubilant Mugabe declared as the final votes were being counted.
His ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front won 74 seats, compared with 40 for the MDC. One seat went to an independent candidate -- former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, architect of Zimbabwe's repressive media laws -- and five were still to be determined.
Mugabe's sister, Sabrina, and two nephews won seats. Under Zimbabwean law, 120 lawmakers are elected and Mugabe has the power to appoint the other 30 himself.
Mugabe, 81, has long aimed for a two-thirds majority to enable him to amend the constitution without having to seek approval in a referendum. Voters rejected his plans in a 2000 referendum.
He hopes to set up a Senate representing traditional chiefs, retired politicians and other eminent Zimbabweans. But critics charge the autocrat wants to pack the chamber with his cronies to maintain his influence as he heads toward retirement. He also wants to be able to pick a successor without having to hold interim elections.
The MDC -- which fell short of the 57 seats it won in 2000 parliamentary elections -- held crisis talks but came up with no clear plan of action.
"Today the world has seen the extent to which Mugabe is determined to hold on to power without due regard to the people," MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said. "This election cannot be accepted as a reflection of Zimbabwe's will."
Tsvangirai stopped short of urging mass protests, given the government's violent suppression of previous actions.
A few angry MDC supporters kicked the cars of ruling-party supporters, but otherwise there were no signs of demonstrations. Streets bustled with people shopping and going to work, reflecting a mood of widespread weariness with politics in a nation beset with crippling unemployment and inflation.
Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk 50 percent during the past five years, and the unemployment rate is at least 70 percent. Agriculture -- the country's economic base -- has collapsed, and at least 70 percent of the population live in poverty.
Mugabe tried to rally support after the opposition's strong showing in 2000 with a land reform program aimed at righting racial imbalances in ownership inherited from British rule. Thousands of white-owned commercial farms were redistributed to black Zimbabweans in an often violent campaign that has crippled the economy.
Norbert Ncube, a roadside vendor of cigarettes and phone cards, said the election results did not seem credible since the number of votes recorded in certain areas seemed higher than the number of voters.
ZANU-PF, as the ruling party is known, "had a majority in parliament in the past five years, but during that time we have seen factories shut down, jobs disappear and economic hardships increase. It will be worse now that they have more than the two-thirds majority," Ncube said.
Stella Nasasa, a 31-year-old municipal worker, disagreed.
"It was free and fair. By that I mean there was no rigging and I am very happy," Nasasa said as she removed election posters in a post-campaign cleanup.
Mugabe, one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, had hoped Thursday's poll would give a stamp of legitimacy to his increasingly isolated and repressive regime. But Western diplomats and independent rights groups said it was skewed by Mugabe's long history of violence.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized the elections as "heavily tilted in the government's favor."
She estimated that more than 10 percent of would-be voters were turned away from polling stations due to irregularities with voter registration rolls.
"The independent press was muzzled, freedom of assembly was constrained, food was used as a weapon to sway hungry voters and millions of Zimbabweans who have been forced by the nation's economic collapse to emigrate were disenfranchised," Rice said Friday.
The estimated 3.4 million Zimbabweans who live abroad -- more than 20 percent of the population -- have been barred from voting.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...abwe_election_3