The most important job of the Southern African Development Community summit scheduled for Lusaka, Zambia, this weekend, would be to push the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to release the country’s election results, a senior South African official has told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>.
While most eyes in Southern Africa were glued to the unfolding drama in Zimbabwe this week, Botswana remained true to its reputation as Africa’s most stable country, quietly transferring power from one president to another. On April 1, Festus Mogae, president for the past decade, handed power to his hand-picked successor.
Harareans don’t call their city the ”rumour capital” for nothing. This week, it delivered on its reputation. After what was supposed to be Zimbabwe’s most important election since 1980, official information about the results was as scarce as admirers of Robert Mugabe. Just what the Harare rumour-mill needed.
The political and economic future of Zimbabwe is resting on a razor’s edge as hard-line military commanders and a more moderate faction of Zanu-PF leaders vie to win over a defeated Robert Mugabe. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is legally bound to release the results of the presidential election by Friday.
Zimbabwe’s opposition may be celebrating a historic win over President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, but many people inside and outside the country are wondering how the election could have been this close. How did Mugabe, who has reduced Zimbabwe to an economic and human-rights basket case, garner close to half the vote?
The United Kingdom is working on an unprecedented £1-billion annual international emergency aid and development package to rescue the ruined Zimbabwean economy, the Guardian reported on Thursday. However, any programme would be contingent on a new democratic government coming to power.
Four scenarios confront Zimbabweans as they prepare to go to the polls at the weekend: a Robert Mugabe victory, the most likely outcome; a second round of voting; a victory for the majority faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) under Morgan Tsvangirai; and a disputed election.
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/ 21 December 2007
How about the seven-star Burj Al Arab in Dubai where you get to choose from a menu of 13 different types of pillows, or a two-night stopover at the Mandarin Oriental in Bermuda where you can enjoy a champagne “high tea” served in your suite by a private butler? Should you be staying at the Hong Kong Peninsula, your airport transfer will be in a Rolls Royce.