Zimbabwe election: Robert Mugabe re-elected amid voting fraud claims

[derby378]

Source: Toronto Star

Africa’s oldest president, Robert Mugabe, was declared winner of Zimbabwe’s election on Saturday, but rival Morgan Tsvangirai said he would challenge in court a result he called a fraud that would push the country back into crisis.

Mugabe, 89, who has ruled the former British colony in southern Africa since its independence in 1980, was formally proclaimed re-elected for a five-year term barely an hour after Tsvangirai announced his planned legal challenge.

“We are going to go to court, we are going to go to the AU (African Union), we are going to go to the SADC (Southern African Development Community),” Tsvangirai angrily told a news conference in Harare.

While African observers from the AU and SADC have already broadly approved Wednesday’s peaceful vote, independent domestic monitors have described it as vitiated by registration problems that may have disenfranchised up to a million people.

Read more: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/08/03/zimbabwe_election_robert_mugabe_reelected_amid_voting_fraud_claims.html

[Wolf Frankula]

1. Following the Successful Field Test of the Rethuglican Voting Suppression Methods

in Zimbabwe, plans are set to introduce them in the United States in 2014.

Wolf

[Tanelorn]

2. Most western democratic election results hang on a knife edge. The Zimbabwean President

is returned with 61% of the vote. Anyone smell a rat?

[Posteritatis]

5. Most western democratic election results have fairly comfortable margins

The problem in this one isn't Mugabe getting 61% of the vote, it's the fact that people in his opponent's favored voting districts were barred from voting with a three or four to one ratio compared to those in Mugabe's.

[MADem]

3. But... but.... the elections were "free" and "nonviolent!"

Never mind that hundreds of thousands of people over the age of 100 got up off their asses and voted!

What a miracle, how long folks live over that way!

The only way Mugabe will leave is in a box. He's 89...but only the good die young, it would seem.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

4. Gomer Pyle says "surprise, surprise!!!"

[Archae]

6. This guy was also one of Hugo Chavez's BFFs.

Don't know if he gets along with Maduro as buddy-buddy.

[David__77]

7. Mugabe and Tsvangirai are one.

This conflict will settle back down. It's too bad that Zimbabwe is mired in poverty. Damn ZANU-PF, damn MDC, and damn Britain...

[dipsydoodle]

8. US and UK concern over Zimbabwe election results

The US and UK have expressed concern after official results from Zimbabwe's elections gave President Robert Mugabe a seventh term in office amid claims of electoral fraud.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the results did not "represent a credible expression of the people".

>

Mr Tsvangirai, though, rejected the vote for parliament and president as fraudulent and vowed to take legal action.

He said his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would no longer work with Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and boycott government institutions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23565126

[joshcryer]

9. No Mugabe defenders?

[iandhr]

10. Don't worry

They will be here shortly.

[Archae]

12. After what Mugabe said about gays, I don't think anyone wants to defend him.

[joshcryer]

13. Eh, Maduro's anti-gay comments were ignored.

And he was cheered from the rooftops here. Dozens of people cheering him on, lovingly, and with pure adulation.

[Archae]

14. I didn't know Maduro had said anything about gays...

Link?

As to Mugabe:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/26/mugabe-zimbabwe-behead-gays_n_3659454.html

[joshcryer]

15. Granted, it wasn't that level of hatred.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11082269

But if you watched the campaign Maduro was channeling homophobic sentiments throughout and kept apologizing every time he made a slip up (mainly a "sorry if anyone was offended&quot . If you need some cites I can pull them up.

[Archae]

16. That was over a year ago, since then Chavez died.

I'd like to know what Maduro says NOW.

There's enough from that batshit crazy Maduro to condemn him as is.

[joshcryer]

17. Last time was in March, it was campaign rhetoric:

"I do have a wife, you know? I do like women!" he told the crowd with his wife Cilia Flores at his side, who has served as attorney general but is stepping down to join her husband's campaign.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/12/us-venezuela-chavez-idUSBRE92405420130312

[Archae]

18. Now that is a half-assed dig at his opponent "being gay."

Only a real scumbag like a teabagger or someone desperate to win would pull shit like that.

[Marrah_G]

11. Since he is 89, hopefully he won't around much longer