Zimbabwe - Party of Mugabe "wins election"

(Heavy sigh)...

I won't be convinced until Jimmy Carter puts his stamp of approval on these elections!!!

I am still waiting for the exit poll analysis by the statistical experts at DU...

Jimmah should be declaring the election free or corruption anytime now.

I won't be convinced until Jimmy Carter puts his stamp of approval on these elections!!!
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Like all peace-nik socialists, poor ole Jimmy would bless the election of the devil himself, if he felt the devil was a Democrat....

100%?

Castro should just go ahead and hold an "election" for himself. I'm sure Jimmy would be more than happy to certify Fidel as the "unanimous" choice of the Cuban people.

Castro should just go ahead and hold an "election" for himself. I'm sure Jimmy would be more than happy to certify Fidel as the "unanimous" choice of the Cuban people.
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Yes, Jimmy would do ANYTHING for PEANUTS!!! :-)

I'm sure Saddam regrets not bringing him in to certify his election.

Jimmah Cahtah never met a dictator he didn't suck up to...
What's he waiting for this time around ?

Probably for a call from North Korea.

[ Zimbabwe - Party of Mugabe "wins election" ]

"Isn't that special" - Church Lady SNL..c;-'

Strange... not a word from the UN...

...oh, I forgot... Third World homicidal black dictators get a free pass at the UN...

Was Jimmy Carter there helping out, you know like he did in Iraq?~}


	Posted on Fri, Apr. 01, 2005

	Zimbabwe ruling party wins majority vote NICOLE ITANO Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe's political party clinched a parliamentary majority Friday, but the opposition said the vote was stolen and urged Zimbabweans to protest the outcome. Mugabe, one of Africa's longest serving leaders and the last on the continent who has ruled his country since the departure of a colonial power, had hoped Thursday's poll would give a stamp of legitimacy to his increasingly isolated and autocratic regime. But Western diplomats and independent rights groups said it was skewed by Mugabe's long history of violence. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the election was neither free nor fair, charging the "playing field was heavily tilted in the government's favor." Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front won 69 of Parliament's 120 elected seats, compared to 35 for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change and one to an independent candidate, according to partial results announced Friday by the national election commission. Mugabe appoints an additional 30 seats. With one more seat, Mugabe would have the two-thirds majority he's been seeking to change the constitution. The opposition may not even match its showing of 57 seats won during the last vote, in 2000. "The government has fraudulently, once again, betrayed the people," opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said. "We believe the people of Zimbabwe must defend their vote and their right to free and fair elections." As an example of irregularities, Tsvangirai cited the race in Manyame, 25 miles southwest of Harare, where Mugabe's nephew was declared the winner. Election officials announced Thursday night that 14,812 people voted in that constituency. But early Friday, they changed the total to 24,000 and said Mugabe's nephew got more than 15,000 votes. Opposition leaders were meeting Saturday to decide their next step. Tsvangirai's party has shied from confrontation after past street protests were violently crushed. His party has preferred to fight its battles in the courtroom, but the courts are now packed with judges sympathetic to Mugabe. Under international pressure to produce a credible result, Mugabe's security forces and supporters ratcheted down violence in the last weeks of campaigning and on election day. But local and international rights groups, the United States and European Union said five years of brutality already had tilted the electoral playing field in favor of Mugabe's party. "The United States calls on the government of Zimbabwe to recognize the legitimacy of the opposition and abandon policies designed to repress, crush and otherwise stifle expressions of differences," Rice said in her statement. The London-based rights group Amnesty International decried the arrest of some 250 women activists who tried to hold a prayer vigil in downtown Harare shortly before the polls closed. Some were beaten and severely injured before they were released, Amnesty said. Mugabe rejected complaints about the election as "nonsense," telling reporters Thursday that no other country had polls as free as this one. The independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network, which deployed 6,000 observers nationwide, said as many as a quarter of those who tried to vote before 3:15 p.m. Thursday were turned away because they did not appear on the voter roll or failed to present proper identification. Electoral officials acknowledged there were problems, but disputed the group's figures. Observers from neighboring countries largely sympathetic to Mugabe said Friday that the election was conducted in an "open, transparent and professional manner." They did, though, express concern about the high number of people who were unable to cast ballots. The 14-member Southern African Development Community also endorsed the 2002 presidential election that Western observers called seriously flawed. Mugabe tried to rally support after his party'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 country's agriculture-based economy, also hit by drought. Mugabe's government also cracked down on dissent, arresting critics and shutting down a series of independent newspapers. The architect of Zimbabwe's repressive media laws, Jonathan Moyo, was the only independent candidate to win a seat as of late Friday. Mugabe dismissed the former information minister after Moyo challenged the president's authority over the appointment of the country's first woman vice president, a position that could put the holder in line to succeed the 81-year-old leader. --- Associated Press writer Rodrique Ngowi contributed to this report.