International Law

Numbers Game

By John Hirst

It beggars belief that the Zimbabwe Election Commission has ordered a recount of the votes for the presidential election held more than 2 weeks ago before all the votes have been counted or the result announced.

Those ballot boxes opened and the votes counted showed that Robert Mugabe lost the election. Then the process ground to a halt. If it was an open and fair process, the remaining ballot boxes would have been opened and the votes counted and the result announced. It may be that they were opened and the votes counted and this is why Robert Mugabe is making a last stand to stay in power. If he had won, why did he simply not announce the result? There is only a need for a recount when the result is announced and there is only a few votes separating the winner from the loser. Robert Mugabe knows the real result but is attempting to hide this by calling for a run off and/or a recount following his party's stuffing rigged ballot papers into the ballot boxes.

Why on earth an 84 year old seeks to hold on to power when he can retire and enjoy the benefits of everything he has stolen whilst in office is beyond me.

Full post as published by prisonlawinsideout on April 14, 2008 (boomark / email).