It is being reported that Zimbabwee President/Dictator Mugabe may be looking for a way to leave power and turn things over to the opposition. (Update: BBC is reporting this is not the case according to the opposition and the government) This comes after an election where observers say the opposition clearly won (we are talking exit polling essentially, which can mean little especially in a politically under-analyzed and politically undeveloped location where voting priorities and allegiances may be obscured.), while the official results are being delayed. Initially it was thought the results were being delayed so that falsification of the results could occur and Mugabe could be named the winner, but it is increasingly looking like that possibility will not be coming a reality.

This would be an interesting development as it would mean that democratic elections would potentially result in the ouster of this dictator who could easily be said to have taken his country to the cusp of irrelevancy and a dire state of economic distress. I’m personally not that clear on what the opposition will bring to the table that will benefit the average Zimbabwean, but Mugabe and his party have really messed the country up so I assume this is a good thing. But only time will tell if Mugabe actually leaves, peacefully or not, and weather whoever may replace him is any better for the country in the end.

A couple other links on this:

NY Times

BBC - They are denying any agreement or talks in the works so maybe this is all premature.

 Update (4/2/2008):   It is looking good for the opposition. The ZANU-PF (Mugabe’s party) is behind 50 to 43%. The Wash Post is still reporting a runoff may be necessary, but that doesn’t make sense considering the opposition party has 50.%

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 4:30 pm and is filed under News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.