Opponents See End to Mugabe Era

[Nutmegger]

HARARE, Zimbabwe, March 28 -- On the eve of Saturday's elections, many Zimbabweans say they have come to believe something that was once all but unthinkable: After nearly 28 years of unbroken power, President Robert Mugabe might lose.

Not just lose in the sense of receiving fewer votes than his opponent, which many Zimbabweans figure has happened before. They predict that the results could be so clear-cut, so overwhelming, that they will swamp even the extensive rigging mechanisms that Mugabe is widely presumed to command.

"The energy, the passion, the air of hope is absolutely amazing," said Trevor Ncube, publisher of two independent weekly newspapers here, among the scant remnants of the nation's once robust free press. "We might just have reached the true tipping point."

The idea has taken on such force -- despite the fact that Mugabe controls nearly every lever of power -- as to approach a national mania. The most skeptical analysts regard this enthusiasm as barely rational.

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/03/29/ST2008032900019.html